Similarity of Campylobacter coli from pigs, poultry and man

Campylobacteriosis is one of the most frequently occurring acute gastroenteritis in humans and 10% are caused by Campylobacter coli. A total of 136 isolates of C. coli from humans, poultry, and pigs were identified by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genetically characterized and compared by ribotyping. Automatic riboprints were performed with the PstI restriction enzyme and RiboPrinter®. All poultry, pig and human strains represented a heterogeneous spectre of ribotypes. Ten of 23 human strains (43%) could be given DUP-ID from the library represented by DUP-PSTI-1200 (n = 7), DUP-PST1-1201 (n = 2) and DUP-PSTI-1211 (n = 1). Eighteen of 28 (64%) poultry strains were given a DUP-ID. Three isolates were closely related to human strains DUP-PSTI-1201 (n = 2) and DUP-PSTI-1200 (n = 1) and may play an important role in the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis. Nineteen of 85 pig isolates (23%) could be given a DUP-ID, but none were common to human isolates. An overlap was found among poultry and pig isolates with DUP-PSTI-1182 and DUP-PSTI-1140.