Prevalence of Campylobacter spp. and their Common Serotypes in 330 Cases of Red-meat, Chicken-meat and Egg-shell in Zanjan City, Iran

Background: Campylobacter spp. are the common pathogens that infect human beings via food. These bacteria are vibrio and have been implicated in abortion. Serotyping is the best way for typing with Penner scheme. C. jejuni and C. coli have 65 serotypes. C. coli is common in birds and dogs. Due to high rate of prevalence of Campylobacter in red-meat, chicken-meat and egg-shell, a suitable method to detect their prevalence, the most common species and serotyping group was necessary. This article describes the prevalence of Campylobacter infection, common serotyping group in 330 samples of red- meat, hen-meat and egg-shell. Materials and Methods: With three methods: enrichment, selective Preston and Skirrow and filtration with membrane filters Campylobacter swere incubated. Bacterial species were identified with physiological and biochemical tests. Penner serotyping was defined with reference antiserum Ag-O and direct agglutination. Results: Prevalence of Campylobacter infection was 21(23%) in red meat, 33(27.5%) in hen meat and 38(31.6%) in eggshell. In egg-shell samples: C. jejuni 20, C. coli 14, C. lari 3 and C. concisus 1 case. In meat common Penner serotyping for C. jejuni O2 had the highest rate. In hen, common Penner serotyping: for C. jejuni O3 and in egg-shell for O1, O2 and O3 had the highest rate. Conclusion: Most infection of campylobacter was found in egg-shell; most common species in these three samples were C. jejuni, then C. coli and C. lari. No C. consicus was found in meat but it was found in hen and egg-shells. In common Penner serotyping for C. jejuni O2 and O3 were the most common and for C. coli in meat O49 and in hen and eggshell O 5 were the highest.