Affiliation:
1. Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna, Lodi, Italy
2. Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata, Putignano (BA), Italy
3. Mouse and Animal Pathology Laboratory, Fondazione Filarete, Milan, Italy
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Thermotolerant
Campylobacter
spp. are frequently the cause of human gastroenteritis and have assumed more importance in Italy following the increased consumption of raw milk. Our objectives were to determine the prevalence and genotypes of
Campylobacter
spp. in dairy herds and to investigate the possible sources of bulk milk contamination. Bulk milk from dairy herds (
n
= 282) was cultured for
Campylobacter
spp. and
Enterobacteriaceae
. At three
Campylobacter jejuni
-positive farms, bovine feces, pigeon intestines, milk, and water points were also investigated. Isolates were identified by PCR and genotyped using multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
C. jejuni
was detected in 34 (12%) bulk milk samples. The strains belonged to 14 sequence types, and the most common clonal complexes were CC-21, CC-48, and CC-403. No association was demonstrated between the presence of
C. jejuni
and high levels of
Enterobacteriaceae
in bulk milk. At the three farms examined,
C. jejuni
was isolated from bovine feces (25/82 [30.5%]), pigeon intestines (13/60 [21.7%]), bulk milk (10/24 [41.7%]), and water points (4/16 [25%]). MLST revealed lineages that were common between milk and bovine feces but distinct between cattle and pigeons. In one herd,
C. jejuni
with the same genotype was isolated repeatedly from bulk milk and a cow with an udder infection. Our results showed a high prevalence of
C. jejuni
in bulk milk and suggested that udder excretion, in addition to fecal matter, may be a route of bulk milk contamination. MLST analysis indicated that pigeons are probably not relevant for the transmission of
C. jejuni
to cattle and for milk contamination.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
Cited by
50 articles.
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