Genetic Diversity and Incidence of Virulence-Associated Genes of Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus Isolates from Pork, Beef, and Chicken Meat in Poland

Incidence of 9 virulence-associated genes and genetic diversity was determined in 79 A. butzleri and 6 A. cryaerophilus isolates from pork, beef, and chicken meat. All A. butzleri isolates harboured the tlyA gene, and most of them carried ciaB, mviN, pldA, cadF, and cj1349 genes. ciaB was found to occur with higher frequency in poultry if compared with pork (p = 0.0007), while irgA was more frequent in poultry than in beef (p = 0.007). All 6 A. cryaerophilus isolates harboured the ciaB gene, while mviN and tlyA were detected in 3 out of these isolates. Only one isolate carried the cadF gene. All beef-derived A. cryaerophilus isolates carried ciaB, mviN, and tlyA genes. A. cryaerophilus isolates from chicken meat harboured ciaB gene only. The pork-derived isolate harboured ciaB and cadF genes. Seventy-four genotypes were distinguished within 79 A. butzleri isolates. Nineteen from 21 isolates derived from beef and pork were found to be closely related to A. butzleri from chicken meat. Each of the 6 A. cryaerophilus isolates was found to have unique genotype. We demonstrated that closely related genotypes can spread within pork, beef, and chicken meat populations of A. butzleri but not A. cryaerophilus.