Prevalence, seasonality, and antimicrobial resistance of thermotolerant Campylobacter isolated from broiler farms and slaughterhouses in East Algeria

Vet World Vol.13 June-2020 Article-28

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(6): 1221-1228

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.1221-1228

Mohamed Baali^1,2, Mohamed Lounis², Hanan Laidouci Al Amir³, Ammar Ayachi⁴, Ahcen Hakem⁵, and Ahmed Kassah-Laouar⁶

1. Laboratory of Food Hygiene and Quality Insurance System, High National Veterinary School, Rue Issad Abbes, Oued Smar, Algiers, Algeria.
2. Department of Agroveterinary Science, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Ziane Achour, Road of Moudjbara, Djelfa, Algeria.
3. Department of Food and Water Bacteriology, Pasteur Institute of Algeria, Road of Petit Staouéli, Dely Brahim, Algiers, Algeria.
4. Biotechnology Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Cellular Physiopathology, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Batna 2, Batna, Algeria.
5. Center of Agro-pastoralism, Djelfa, Algeria.
6. Central Laboratory of Medical Biology, Anti-Cancer Center, Batna, Algeria.

Background and Aim: The current study was carried out to determine the prevalence, seasonality, and antimicrobial profile of thermotolerant Campylobacter isolated from broiler chickens in Batna, East Algeria, from June 2016 to June 2018.

Materials and Methods: A total of 960 samples, including 480 cloacal swabs, 240 cecal contents, and 240 neck skin samples collected from 6 poultry farms and 12 slaughterhouses, were included in this study. After isolation and identification, susceptibility to seven antimicrobial agents was tested by the disk diffusion method. The seasonality of Campylobacter infection at broiler farms was statistically analyzed.

Results: The data showed that 65%, 55%, and 70% of the cloacal swab, neck skin, and cecal content samples were contaminated with thermotolerant Campylobacter strains, respectively (p<0.05). Among the isolated campylobacteria, Campylobacter jejuni was the predominant species (73.5%). Sampling season exhibited a significant impact on the prevalence of Campylobacter (p<0.01), with peak occurrence in summer. All of the isolates were susceptible to gentamicin and resistant to ampicillin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, while 83.3% of them were resistant to erythromycin. Interestingly, 16 different resistance profiles were noted, with the combination of "ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, and tetracycline" being the most common, identified in 20.7% of isolated strains.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the presence of a high contamination rate of multidrug-resistant Campylobacter in farms and slaughterhouses in East Algeria. These findings underscore the need to apply strict control measures to avoid any associated public health hazard among Algerian consumers. This initial finding of the contamination of poultry with this zoonotic pathogen in East Algeria suggests the value of periodic comprehensive evaluation of associated disease in poultry as well as in humans in this region. Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, broilers, poultry farms, slaughterhouses, thermotolerant Campylobacter.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, broilers, poultry farms, slaughterhouses, thermotolerant Campylobacter.

How to cite this article: Baali M, Lounis M, Al Amir HL, Ayachi A, Hakem A, Kassah-Laouar A (2020) Prevalence, seasonality, and antimicrobial resistance of thermotolerant Campylobacter isolated from broiler farms and slaughterhouses in East Algeria, Veterinary World, 13(6): 1221-1228.

Received: 27-12-2019 Accepted: 11-05-2020 Published online: 28-06-2020

Corresponding author: Mohamed Baali E-mail: drbaalimohamed@hotmail.fr

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.1221-1228

Copyright: Baali, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.