Symposia and Oral Sessions

While both Campylobacter coli and C. jejuni are frequent causes of human campylobacteriosis, a common conclusion of health care professionals and researchers alike is that C. jejuni is the more pathogenic or virulent species. C. jejuni has been shown to be superior in enterotoxin production, suggesting that C. jejuni is more enterotoxigenic, and as such, potentially more virulent than C. coli. The objective of this investigation was to speciate Campylobacter isolates recovered in three commercial turkey processing facilities to either C. coli or C. jejuni using a PCR-based method of speciation. Carcass rinses were obtained from select points along the processing line within these three geographically distinct facilities at both pre-evisceration and post-evisceration sampling sites. Of all recovered Campylobacter evaluated across all plants, 93% were speciated to either C. coli or C. jejuni. When evaluating trends of individual species recovered among the three facilities, speciation of Campylobacter was variable depending on the location of sampling within each plant, and also between the facilities. C. coli was the predominant species isolated in Plants 1 and 3, representing 59% and 54% of total Campylobacter recovered by plant, respectively. Plant 2 had a higher incidence of C. jejuni, where this species represented 60% of total Campylobacter recovered. Although C. jejuni has historically been isolated at a higher frequency from cases of human campylobacteriosis, the present data do not consistently support a predominant trend of C. jejuni isolation from commercially processed turkeys.