Short variable regions flaA gene (SVR-flaA) diversity of multidrug resistant Campylobacter strains from poultry and poultry meat in India

Abstract

AbstractHuman gastrointestinal infections caused byCampylobacterspecies is the second most important foodborne illness after Salmonellosis worldwide. Poultry are the largest reservoir forCampylobacterorganisms. In the present study the short variable region of flagellin gene (SVR-flaA) typing was carried out to determine the variation among the circulating strains ofC. jejuniandC. coli. TheCampylobacter jejuniandC coliisolated from poultry birds and poultry meat were screened for the presence of virulence determinants likecadF,flaA,cdtB, andwlaN gene. The screening forwlaN gene is crucial in view of fact thatC jejunistrains that elicit Guillian Barre’s (GB) syndrome in humans carrywlaN gene. Out of the 200 samples comprising of poultry meat and cloacal swabs, 21.5% of samples were found positive forCampylobacterspp, 2.5% forC. jejuni, and 19% forC. coli. ThecadF,flaA,cdtB virulence genes were detected in all strains ofCampylobacterisolated in the present study. The presence of thewlaN gene in theC jejunistrains isolated in the present study may pose a public health threat with long term human health implications. The SVR-flaA typing ofCampylobacterstrains revealed thatCampylobacter coli flaA sequence 0L471375 is a new strain with a novel allele type 1675 and peptide sequence 5 which stands deposited in pubMLST database forCampylobacter. The otherflaA-SVR gene sequences identified in this study were OL471369, OL471370, OL471371, OL471372, OL471373, and OL471374. VariableDdeI-RFLP patterns ofCampylobacterstrains in the present study ranging from 100-1000bp were observed. Antimicrobial profiling of the strains revealed 100% resistance to ciprofloxacin (CIP), ampicillin (AMP), penicillin (PCN) nalidixic acid (NAL) whereas resistance to Tetracycline (TET) was 57.1%, 57.1% for erythromycin (Ery) 28% for amoxicillin (AMX) and enrofloxacin (ENFX) and 85% for amikacin (AMK). The high degree of resistance to fluoroquinoles is important in view of fluoroquinolones being drugs of choice for treatment of humanCampylobacterinfections.