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. 2016 Jun;8(3):382-7.
doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.12396. Epub 2016 May 11.

Hyperendemic Campylobacter jejuni in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) raised for food in a semi-rural community of Quito, Ecuador

Jay P Graham  1 , Karla Vasco  2 , Gabriel Trueba  2
Affiliations

Hyperendemic Campylobacter jejuni in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) raised for food in a semi-rural community of Quito, Ecuador

Jay P Graham et al. Environ Microbiol Rep. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Domestic animals and animal products are the source of pathogenic Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli in industrialized countries, yet little is known about the transmission of these bacteria in developing countries. Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) are commonly raised for food in the Andean region of South America, however, limited research has characterized this rodent as a reservoir of zoonotic enteric pathogens. In this study, we examined the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in 203 fecal samples from domestic animals of 59 households in a semi-rural parish of Quito, Ecuador. Of the twelve animal species studied, guinea pigs showed the highest prevalence of C. jejuni (n = 39/40; 97.5%). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to characterize the genetic relationship of C. jejuni from domestic animals and 21 sequence types (STs) were identified. The majority of STs from guinea pigs appeared to form new clonal complexes that were not related to STs of C. jejuni isolated from other animal species and shared only a few alleles with other C. jejuni previously characterized. The study identifies guinea pigs as a major reservoir of C. jejuni and suggests that some C. jejuni strains are adapted to this animal species.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Minimum spanning tree analysis of 44 C. jejuni isolates (from a semi-rural parish of Quito, Ecuador) based on MLST profile and according to animal source. Each circle represents the sequence type (ST), the size of the circle and circle divisions indicate the number of isolates within any given ST. Line colours indicate the following information: black=5–6 shared alleles; grey 3–4 shared alleles; and gree n=1–2 shared alleles. The colour of the circle indicates the animal species.
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