Antimicrobial Resistance, FlaA Sequencing, and Phylogenetic Analysis of <i>Campylobacter</i> Isolates from Broiler Chicken Flocks in Greece

oleh: George Natsos, Niki K. Mouttotou, Emmanouil Magiorkinis, Anastasios Ioannidis, Maria Magana, Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou, Konstantinos C. Koutoulis

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-04-01

Deskripsi

Human campylobacteriosis caused by thermophilic <i>Campylobacter</i> species is the most commonly reported foodborne zoonosis. Consumption of contaminated poultry meat is regarded as the main source of human infection. This study was undertaken to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility and the molecular epidemiology of 205 <i>Campylobacter</i> isolates derived from Greek flocks slaughtered in three different slaughterhouses over a 14-month period. A total of 98.5% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent. In terms of multidrug resistance, 11.7% of isolates were resistant to three or more groups of antimicrobials. Extremely high resistance to fluoroquinolones (89%), very high resistance to tetracycline (69%), and low resistance to macrolides (7%) were detected. FlaA sequencing was performed for the subtyping of 64 <i>C. jejuni</i> and 58 <i>C. coli</i> isolates. No prevalence of a specific flaA type was observed, indicating the genetic diversity of the isolates, while some flaA types were found to share similar antimicrobial resistance patterns. Phylogenetic trees were constructed using the neighbor-joining method. Seven clusters of the <i>C. jejuni</i> phylogenetic tree and three clusters of the <i>C. coli</i> tree were considered significant with bootstrap values >75%. Some isolates clustered together were originated from the same or adjacent farms, indicating transmission via personnel or shared equipment. These results are important and help further the understanding of the molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of <i>Campylobacter</i> spp. derived from poultry in Greece.