Fla-typing, RAPD analysis, isolation rate and antimicrobial resistance profile of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli of human origin collected from hospitals in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the isolation rate, antimicrobial resistance profile and molecular typing of Campylobacter spp. recovered from patients with diarrhea in hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Over a period of 13 months, from 562 diarrheal samples 49 (8.7%) Campylobacter spp. were isolated, of which 34 (69.5%) were Campylobacter jejuni and 12 (24.5%) were identified as Campylobacter coli. Antimicrobial susceptibility and typing of the Campylobacter spp. isolates was carried out using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method, fla-typing and RAPD analysis. The highest resistance in the collected Campylobacter isolates was to ofloxacin (77.5%) followed by ciprofloxacin (73.4%), nalidixic acid (69.3%), ceftazidime (53%), cefotaxime (51%) and carbenicillin (40.8%) while all the isolates were susceptible to imipenem. The results of RAPD analysis and fla-typing showed a relative high diversity and weak clonality amongst Campylobacter spp. isolates from patients with diarrhea in two hospitals in Tehran, Iran. In addition, during the current study, fla-typing proved to be more reliable and reproducible for typing of isolates. To our knowledge, this is the first study providing structural data for RAPD analysis and fla-typing of Campylobacter spp. isolates recovered from Iranian patients. © Springer-Verlag and the University of Milan 2010.