Antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence-associated genes in Campylobacter isolates from milk and wastewater in Hatay, Turkey

Abstract

Campylobacter is one of the most common causes of bacterial foodborne diseases throughout the world. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and virulence of Campylobacter isolates of raw cow’s milk and cattle slaughterhouse wastewater samples in Hatay, Turkey. A total of 114 raw milk and 78 wastewater samples were analyzed for the identification of C. jejuni, C. coli, and C. lari by multiplex PCR. The overall prevalence of Campylobacter was found to be 7.2%, of these isolates, 85.7% were identified as C. jejuni and 14.2% as C. coli, but C. lari was not detected in the study. The cdtA and cadF genes were present in 66.6% and 41.6% of C. jejuni isolates tested, respectively, but wlaN gene was not found in any of the isolates. Results of antimicrobial resistance analysis showed that 71.4% of the isolates were resistant to erythromycin, 64.2% to tetracycline, and 57.1% to ciprofloxacin. Overall, 8 of 14 Campylobacter isolates (57.1%) showed a multidrug resistance.