Prevalence of Arcobacter butzleri in fecal samples, on carcasses and in retail meat of cattle, pig and poultry in Switzerland

The aim of this work was to assess the prevalence of A. butzleri in poultry, pig and cattle production lines. A total of 1783 poultry, 568 cattle and 602 pig samples were examined. The samples were enriched in CAT broth, followed by an A. butzleri specific PCR. For poultry we found a prevalence of 1.4 % (15/1090) for the fecal swabs, 53.6 % (133/248) for the neck skin, 64.7 % (134/207) for the skin and 15.1 % (36/238) for the meat samples. For cattle and pigs, the prevalence for the feces was 0 % (0/210) and 21.6 % (54/250), for the surface of carcasses 19.7 % (59/300) and 19.7 % (59/300), and for retail meat 0 % (0/150) and 0 % (0/52), respectively Whilst the role of arcobacter in human disease awaits further evaluation, a precautionary approach is advisable. More data on human isolates are needed.