Epidemiology of thermophilic campylobacter in humans, chickens and water in Morogoro, Tanzania.
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Date
2005
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
An epidemiological study on thermophilic Campylobacter spp in chickens, humans and water was carried out in urban and rural areas of Morogoro, Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to establish the prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter in humans, chickens and water in Morogoro, Tanzania and utilize polymerase chain reaction analysis as the definitive identification method of thermophilic Campylobacters. Campylobacter spp were isolated in 70% of the 536 cloacal swabs and intestines examined in local and broiler chickens sampled from urban and rural areas. C. jejuni was identified in 91.2% of the 374 Campylobacter positive samples while C. coll was identified in 33 (8.8%). C. lari, was not isolated in this study. Local chickens in rural areas had a significantly higher Campylobacter prevalence rate (76%, n=223) than in urban areas (60%, n=l 12) (p<0.05). This was thought to be due to scavenging nature of rural local chickens. Of the 622 human with gastrointestinal problems screened for Campylobacter spp, 59 (9.3%) were positive. 96.6% of all the isolates were C. jejuni and the rest (3.4%) were C. coli. The frequency of isolation of Campylobacter spp was significantly (p<0.001) higher in children (16%, n=175) than in adults (7%, n=475) showing age predisposition. The study further observed that C. coli was only isolated from one child and one single adult patient indicating how rarely does this species infects humans in
Morogoro. 312 (7.4%) males compared to 320 (7.1%) female were positive for Campylobacter. However, this difference was not significant (p>0.05), therefore sex was not a risk factor for Campylobacter infection. Assessment of location of residence also showed that there was no significant difference between proportion of rural human infected with Campylobacter (11%, n=134) and those in urban areas (9%, n=498) (P>0.05). Thermophilic Campylobacter spp were not isolated from any of the water samples from urban and rural Morogoro studied (n=146) although the risk factors for water contamination were obvious. This warrants further investigation. Definitive identification of C. jejuni isolates by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) revealed that 74.1% of the 243 isolates were positive and 25.9% were negative. Positive isolates to biochemical tests turning negative to PCR poses a challenge to biochemical identification methods for C. jejuni and calls for further studies utilizing PCR able to detect all species of thermophilic Campylobacter group.
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Keywords
Thermophilic campylobacter- humans, Thermophilic campylobacter- chickens, Thermophilic campylobacter-water, Morogoro, Tanzania