title: Prevalence and genotypes of Campylobacter jejuni from urban environmental sources in comparison with clinical isolates from children.
abstract: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Campylobacter jejuni in potential contamination sources that are not regularly monitored such as free-living urban pigeons and crows, dogs, cats and urban environmental water and to assess the possible impact on the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis in children using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Campylobacter spp. were detected in 36.2 % of faecal samples of free-living urban birds and in 40.4 % of environmental water samples. A low prevalence of Campylobacter spp. was detected in dogs and cats, with 7.9 and 9.1 %, respectively. Further identification of isolates revealed that environmental water and pet samples were mostly contaminated by other Campylobacter spp. than C. jejuni, whereas C. jejuni was the most prevalent species in faecal samples of free-living birds (35.4 %). This species was the dominant cause of campylobacteriosis in children (91.5 %). In addition, the diversity of C. jejuni MLST types in free-living birds and children was investigated. Clonal complex (CC) 179 was predominant among free-living urban birds; however, only two isolates from children were assigned to this CC. One dog and one child isolate were assigned to the same clonal complex (CC48) and sequence type (ST) 918. The dominant two clonal complexes among the child clinical isolates (CC353 and CC21) were not detected among C. jejuni strains isolated from environmental sources examined in this study. As only two CCs were shared by environmental and child C. jejuni isolates and a high number of novel alleles and STs were found in C. jejuni isolated from free-living urban birds and environmental water, there is probably only a limited link between urban environmental sources and campylobacteriosis in children, particularly in rather cold climatic conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Safety and Quality, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės str.18, Kaunas LT-47181, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Sigita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramonaite
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, University of Copenhagen, Stigbojlen 4, 1780 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.|Department of Food Safety and Quality, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės str.18, Kaunas LT-47181, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Egle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kudirkiene
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Children Diseases, Medicine Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, A. Mickevičiaus g. 9, Kaunas, LT 44307.
authors.forename: Egle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tamuleviciene
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Children Diseases, Medicine Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, A. Mickevičiaus g. 9, Kaunas, LT 44307.
authors.forename: Giedra
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leviniene
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės str.18, Kaunas LT-47181, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Alvydas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malakauskas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Hygiene, Freie Universität Berlin, Königsweg 69, 14163 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Greta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gölz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Hygiene, Freie Universität Berlin, Königsweg 69, 14163 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alter
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Safety and Quality, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės str.18, Kaunas LT-47181, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Mindaugas
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malakauskas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000662:veterinary; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002415:Cats; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D010856:Columbidae; D046368:Crows; D004285:Dogs; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D015995:Prevalence; D014505:Urban Population