Study of Campylobacter in Raw Cow Milk in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to establish the presence of Campylobacter species, determine its prevalence and assess some of the epidemiological variables such as breed and season in the distribution of Campylobacter species in raw cow milk in the state. During October, 2007 and September, 2008, a total of 146 raw milk samples were collected from lactating cows in selected dairy herds in the state. The samples were processed for Campylobacter isolations by inoculating in Preston Enrichment broth and incubated for 48h at 37oC, and subsequently spread-plated on mCCDA incubated at 42oC for 48 h microaerobically. The colonies were subjected to oxidase reaction, hippurate hydrolysis and sensitivity to nalidixic acid and cephalothin for identification. The identified isolates were biotyped using the new extended scheme of Lior. Only 7(4.8%) of the samples were positive and all the positive isolates were identified as C. jejuni and C. jejuni biotype I. The white Fulani breed of cattle had the highest contamination rate of 2(5.4%) and there was no association between the breed and Campylobacter contamination of milk (P = 0.6997, p>0.005). More contamination rate of 3(6.1%) was observed during the dry hot season than other seasons, there was no association between Campylobacter contamination of milk and the seasons (P = 0.3776, p>0.005). The isolation of C. jejuni from milk in this study is of serious public health concern as C. jejuni is the most common Campylobacter species implicated in human Campylobacteriosis worldwide.