Campylobacter spp. and their antimicrobial resistance patterns in poultry: An epidemiological survey study in Turkey

Abstract

The current study aimed at determining the prevalence and the antimicrobial resistance profiles of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. infecting broiler chickens. A total of 240 caecal samples from six slaughterhouses were examined for the presence of Campylobacter spp. C. jejuni was detected in 40.4% (97/240) of the samples and C. coli in 12.1% (29/240). The agar disc diffusion method and the E-test were used for testing the antimicrobial susceptibility of C. jejuni and C. coli isolates. C. jejuni isolates were most resistant to nalidixic acid (79.4%) followed by tetracycline (76.3%), ciprofloxacin (74.2%) and enrofloxacin (15.5%). Among the C. coli isolates, the frequency of resistance to nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin was the same at 65.5%. The predominant profiles of multidrug resistance to three or more antimicrobials in C. jejuni and C. coli were determined as tetracycline/nalidixic acid/ciprofloxacin resistance (48.5%) and tetracycline/nalidixic acid/ciprofloxacin/enrofloxacin resistance (51.7%), respectively. To prevent the transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria of animal origin to humans, it should be noted that high proportions of multidrug resistance were found in both species. © 2008 The Authors.