Phenotyping of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli by a quantitative antibiogram [MIC] typing scheme using Euclidean distances [QATED]

BACKGROUND: Enteropathogenic Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are presently the most common cause of acute bacterial gastroenteritis in the developed world. An understanding of sources and means of transmission of Campylobacter is an essential factor in order to reduce the incidence of Campylobacter-related gastroenteritis in man. Consequently a reproducible, sensitive and well-standardised typing scheme is critical in the successful discrimination of strains and in the subsequent investigations of outbreaks. For this purpose, a phenotypic typing scheme based on quantitative antibiogram determination based on Euclidean distance (QATED), was developed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results obtained with this typing scheme demonstrated that individual livers of colonized pigs could be infected with multiple strains of Campylobacter spp. and subspecies types. In conclusion, phenotyping of Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli by QATED is a simple, inexpensive and discriminatory sub-species characterisation scheme, which may be useful in primary diagnostic clinical laboratories, where no specialist Campylobacter phenotyping or molecular genotyping schemes exist. It is especially suitable for food-bome outbreak investigations in the community, where a rapid and local response is required to aid with public health epidemiological investigations.