Antimicrobial susceptibility of Campylobacter species.

Thermophilic Campylobacter spp. are important causative agents of diarrhoeal disease in humans. Antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacter spp. that originate from poultry can enter the human food chain and result in resistant Campylobacter spp. in human infections. Campylobacter spp. were isolated from chicken faeces collected from chicken farms near Harare. Human isolates of Campylobacter spp. were obtained from clinical laboratories in Harare. The Campylobacter isolates were identified by biochemical tests and tested for their susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs using the disc-diffusion method. A total of 77 human and 83 chicken isolates were characterised. C. jejuni was the most common in both humans (75.3%) and chickens (60.2%), followed by C. coli, which was detected in 19.5% of human and 28.9% of chicken isolates, and then C. lari, detected in 5.2% of human and 10.8% of chicken isolates. All the Campylobacter spp. from humans and chickens were susceptible to erythromycin and all isolates from the chickens were also susceptible to chloramphenicol and gentamicin. Over 85% of the isolates from humans and chickens were susceptible to ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and tetracycline. Approximately 50% of the isolates from humans and 82% of those from chickens were resistant to co-trimoxazole. All the human and chicken Campylobacter isolates that were resistant to norfloxacin were also resistant to ciprofloxacin. The present study has shown low levels of resistance of Campylobacter spp. from humans and chickens to most of the antimicrobial drugs tested, with the exception of co-trimoxazole.