Antimicrobial Susceptibility, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis, and Multi-locus Sequence Typing of Campylobacter coli in Swine Before, During, and After the Slaughter Process

The objective of this study was to determine persistence of clonal strains from farm to retail by assessing the clonal relatedness of Campylobacter coli isolated on farm, peri-harvest, and at processing from 11 individually identified pigs. Phenotypic (antimicrobial susceptibility) and genotypic (pulsed field gel electrophoresis [PFGE] and multi-locus sequence typing [MLST]) characterization of isolates was conducted. There was high genetic diversity of Campylobacter isolates from on-farm fecal samples. Campylobacter isolates from farm, post-evisceration, hide, and carcass samples showed similar phenotypes and belonged to the same genotypic clusters based on PFGE and sequence types (STs) based on MLST. Five STs that have not been previously reported were identified (ST-4083, ST-4084, ST-4085, ST-4086, ST-4087). Despite high genotypic diversity of C. coli on farm, retail meat products were consistently contaminated with isolates of the same STs, particularly ST854 and ST1056, as isolates collected from previous stages confirming persistence of strains from pre- to post-harvest.