Relationship of Campylobacter Isolated from Poultry and from Darkling Beetles in New Zealand
- 1 January 2004
- journal article
- Published by American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP) in Avian Diseases
- Vol. 48 (1), 138-147
- https://doi.org/10.1637/7082
Abstract
Campylobacter, a foodborne pathogen closely associated with poultry, is considered to be an important agent of human gastroenteritis in New Zealand. The pathways involved in the contamination of poultry flocks remain unclear; however, many vectors, such as insects, rodents, and wild birds, have been implicated. Infestation of poultry houses by insects, particularly darkling beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus), is difficult to control. Furthermore, darkling beetles are known vectors for a variety of pathogens that include Salmonella, infectious bursal disease virus, Aspergillus, Escherichia coli, and Marek's disease virus. In this investigation, the relationship between darkling beetles and Campylobacter contamination of poultry flocks was investigated. A New Zealand breeder flock and four of its progeny broiler flocks were included in the study. Samples of beetles and of intestinal excreta of the birds were cultured for the presence of Campylobacter spp. A subset of the recovered isolates was subsequently genotyped using flaA short variable region (SVR) DNA sequence analysis. A large number of Campylobacter subtypes were isolated, indicating that Campylobacter colonization of poultry is likely to arise from a number of different reservoirs. However, a set of genetically distinct isolates were found to be common to the broiler flocks and to the beetles. This research provides data that indicates that Alphitobius diaperinus may serve as a source of Campylobacter contamination of poultry. A more thorough understanding of the relationship between beetle infestation and the Campylobacter status of poultry flocks should enable progress in further development of biosecurity control measures.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- FOODBORNE DISEASES: Emerging Pathogens and TrendsInfectious Disease Clinics of North America, 1998
- Campylobacter jejuni and the Expanding Spectrum of Related InfectionsClinical Infectious Diseases, 1995
- CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choiceNucleic Acids Research, 1994
- The colonization of broiler chickens withCampylobacter jejuni: some epidemiological investigationsEpidemiology and Infection, 1993
- Epidemiology of Campylobacter enteritisInternational Journal of Food Microbiology, 1991
- Campylobacters associated with human diarrhoeal diseaseJournal of Applied Bacteriology, 1990
- Natural campylobacter colonization in chickens raised under different environmental conditionsEpidemiology and Infection, 1986
- A most probable number method for estimating small numbers of campylobacters in waterEpidemiology and Infection, 1982
- Campylobacter EnteritisNew England Journal of Medicine, 1981
- Incidence of Campylobacter jejuni in fresh eviscerated whole market chickensCanadian Journal of Microbiology, 1981