title: The evidence for clonal spreading of quinolone resistance with a particular clonal complex of Campylobacter jejuni.
abstract: Campylobacter is the most prevalent cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide and it represents a significant public health risk of increasing severity due to its escalating resistance to clinically important quinolone and macrolide antibiotics. As a zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter is transmitted along the food chain and naturally cycles from environmental waters, feedstuff, animals and food to humans. We determined antibiotic resistance profiles, as well as multilocus sequence types and flaA-SVR types for 52 C. jejuni isolated in Slovenia from human, animal, raw and cured chicken meat and water samples. Twenty-eight different sequence types, arranged in ten clonal complexes, three new allele types and five new sequence types were identified, indicating the relatively high diversity in a small group of strains. The assignment of strains from different sources to the same clonal complexes indicates their transmission along the food supply chain. The most prevalent clonal complex was CC21, which was also the genetic group with 95% of quinolone-resistant strains. Based on the genetic relatedness of these quinolone-resistant strains identified by polymerase chain reaction with a mismatch amplification mutation assay and sequencing of the quinolone resistance-determining region of the gyrA gene, we conclude that the high resistance prevalence observed indicates the local clonal spread of quinolone resistance with CC21.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty,University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana,Slovenia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kovač
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty,University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana,Slovenia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cadež
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbiology,Institute of Public Health Maribor,Maribor,Slovenia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lušicky
authors.affiliation: Statens Serum Institut,Copenhagen,Denmark.
authors.forename: E Møller
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Parasitology, Veterinary Faculty,University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana,Slovenia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ocepek
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty,University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana,Slovenia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Raspor
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty,University of Ljubljana,Ljubljana,Slovenia.
authors.forename: S Smole
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Možina
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002417:Cattle / Q000382:microbiology; D002645:Chickens / Q000382:microbiology; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015363:Quinolones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017524:Slovenia; D014422:Turkeys / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015363:Quinolones