Molecular Identification of Campylobacter Species from Positive Cultural Stool Samples of Diarrhoeic Children in Osun State

Abstract

Death of infants from diarrhoea is a common occurrence in sub-Saharan Africa. This is attributed to unhygienic practices which aid the proliferation of diarrhoea-causing microorganisms. Among these microorganisms, Cam- pylobacter species have been reported as one of the causal agents, Campylobacter spp. are human intestinal pathogens of global importance and their pathogenicity mechanisms are not well understood. This study was designed to investigate the molecular characterisation of Campylobacter gotten from cultural methods in Osun State. Campylobacters isolated were biochemically characterized and biotyped. Confirmation of Campylobacter was done using flaA gene, hippuricase O for Campylobacter jejuni and aspartokinase gene for Campylobacter coli and single locus sequencing glnA gene were performed by PCR. Twenty five samples were amplified by PCR out of 57 Campylobacter strains that were positive for cultural methods from 815 stool samples with diarrhoea and 100 stool samples without diarrhoea. No Campylobacter was isolated from stools of children in the control group. Twenty-five isolates comprising of 18 Campylobater jejuni and 7 C. coli were identified. The nucleotide sequence of the gln A for all the isolated Campylobacter spp. showed 91.0% similarity with the ones in the GenBank. The C. jejuni was classified into biotypes I (44.4%) and II (55.6%) and all C. coli were of biotype I.