Frequency of contamination and antimicrobial resistance of thermotolerant Campylobacter isolated from some broiler farms and slaughterhouses in the region of Algiers

Abstract

Campylobacteriosis in humans is caused by thermotolerant Campylobacter spp, following consumption of contaminated poultry, most commonly broiler.

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of contamination by thermotolerant Campylobacter and to characterize antimicrobial resistance of the strains isolated from broilers in some farms and slaughterhouses in the region of Algiers.

One hundred droppings samples, 100 contents of ceaca and 100 neck skins were taken from six poultry farms and five slaughterhouses, than analyzed according to NF. ISO 10272-1/1995 norm and the OIE recommendations. Susceptibility to antibiotics was determined according to the guidelines of the CA-SFM/2010 by disc diffusion method.

Thermotolerant Campylobacter strains were isolated from 85%, 98%, and 80% of droppings, caecal content and neck skin, respectively. All the strains (100%) were resistant to nalidixic acid and sensitive to gentamicin and to chloramphenicol. 83.7% of them were resistant to tetracycline and to ciprofloxacin, 75.3% to ampicillin, 46.8% to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and 21.7% were resistant to erythromycin. All the isolates showed a multi-drug resistance. Nineteen different profiles were identified with “AM, AMC, NA, CIP, TE” combination as the most common profile identified for 27% (n = 74) of isolated strains. In addition, 15% of the strains were resistant to both erythromycin and ciprofloxacin, which are systematically used in treatment of human Campylobacter infections.

Our results showed a high prevalence of thermotolerant Campylobacter with multidrug resistance profiles in poultry farms and slaughterhouses of Algiers. These results stress that the risk of human contamination throughout the food chain is very high, which may generate: i) a danger of food poisoning by ingestion of chicken meat and chicken meat products and, ii) a cross-resistance to antibiotics between human and avian strains.