Prevalence and differentiation of Campylobacter spp. in poultry slaughterhouses of different countries

Campylobacter was determined in 440 samples collected from two abattoirs in Germany and Bulgaria during the slaughtering of poultry. 42.5 % of the samples of German origin were Campylobacter positive, whereas the percentage of positive samples at the beginning of the slaughtering process was 43.3 %. Campylobacter was found during all steps of the poultry slaughtering, with the highest amount of Campylobacter positive samples after defeathering (70 %). After air chilling 46.6 % of the investigated carcasses were contaminated with Campylobacter. In liver, breast- and thigh muscles Campylobacter could be detected, respectively, in 53.3, 16.6 and 36.6%. The analysis of the samples collected in the Bulgarian slaughterhouse resulted in 29 % Campylobacter positive probes, whereas in a high percentage of the livers (42 %) the bacteria was determined. C. jejuni (63.7 %) Was the most frequently isolated species followed by C. coli (33.3 %), C. upsaliensis (1.9%) and C. fetus (1.0 %). The subspecies differentiation of the C. jejuni isolates showed that the most common was C. jejuni ssp. doylei (56.9 %) followed by C. jejuni ssp. jejuni1 (38.5 %)and C.jejuni ssp.jejuni 2 (4.6 %). Further differentiation of the German and Bulgarian C. jejuni isolates by PFGE resulted in eight and three different genotypes, respectively. We could also determine genotypic differences in the probes of the three different flocks collected from the German abattoir.