Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Campylobacter spp. Isolated from Poultry Carcasses in Poland

The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Campylobacterin poultry carcasses at slaughter in Poland. For the isolated strains, resistance to selected antibiotics and the associated genetic determinants were identified. A total of 498 Campylobacterisolates were obtained from 802 poultry samples during the 2-year study period. Strains were identified to species with the PCR method; 53.6% of the strains were Campylobacter jejuniand 46.4% were Campylobacter coli. A high percentage of the tested Campylobacterstrains were resistant to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid (74.1 and 73.5%, respectively) followed by tetracycline (47.4%) and streptomycin (20.5%). Only one C. jejuniand two C. coliisolates were resistant to gentamicin. Seventy-nine (15.9%) of the 498 strains were resistant to three or more classes of antibiotics examined. Higher levels of resistance, irrespective of the antimicrobial agent tested, were found within the C. coligroup. Almost all strains resistant to quinolones (99.5%) and to tetracycline (99.6%) carried the Thr-86-to-Ile mutation in the gyrAgene and possessed the tet(O)marker, respectively. All isolates resistant to erythromycin had the A2075G mutation in the 23S rRNA gene. These results reveal that poultry carcasses in Poland are a reservoir of potentially pathogenic and antimicrobial-resistant Campylobacterstrains for humans, which may pose a public health risk.