Prevalence and characterization of Campylobacter spp. isolated from domestic and imported poultry meat in Korea, 2004-2008

Campylobacteriosis in humans is primarily caused by handling or consuming contaminated poultry or their products. The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in domestic and imported poultry meat in Korea and to further characterize the obtained isolates. From 2004 to 2008, a total of 475 domestic and 867 imported raw poultry meat samples were examined for the presence of Campylobacter spp. Among 475 domestic poultry meat samples, Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were isolated from 219 (46.1%) and 156 (32.8%), respectively. Relative prevalence of C. jejuni and C. coli was higher in meat from Brazil (39/78, 50.0% and 7/78, 8.9%) and France (32/96, 33.3% and 8/96, 8.3%), whereas lower in meat from Denmark (72/516, 14.0% and 12/516, 2.3%) and Thailand (5/39, 12.8% and 3/39, 7.6%). The resistance to ampicillin and tetracycline was highly prevalent in Campylobacter spp. from most countries investigated, whereas lower in meat from Denmark. On the other hand, the prevalence of erythromycin and gentamicin resistance was less than 10% in most countries. The resistance rate to nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, and enrofloxacin ranged from 11.9% to 87.5%. The use of fla-polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for epidemiological analysis found that some pattern types were considerably more frequent and distinct in meat from each country. In conclusion, we report the presence of high contamination in domestic and imported poultry meat in Korea and the antimicrobial and genetic diversity of Campylobacter spp. between each country.