Comparison of the frequency and the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance among C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from human infections, retail poultry meat and poultry in Zenica-Doboj Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Aim To compare the frequency of isolation and occurrence of antimicrobial resistance among C. jejuni and C. coli isolated in humans, retail poultry meat and poultry. Methods Fifty-three human, 52 retail poultry meat and 15 poultry Campylobacter jejuni-coli isolates were investigated for antibiotic susceptibility to eight antimicrobials by disk-diffusion method. Erythromycin and ciprofloxacin susceptibility were further determined by E-test, and additionally the MICs of erythromycin and ciprofloxacin were determined using the broth microdilution method. Results Prevalence of C. coli in humans retail poultry meat and poultry was 28.3%, 56.9% and 53.3%, respectively. No significant differences were found in the overall resistance rates between C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from all three sources (p>0.05). Erythromycin and ciprofloxacin resistance was high and similar in humans, retail poultry meat and poultry (26.4%, 35.3%, 26.7%, and 32.1%, 23.5%, 26.7%, respectively) (p>0.05). C. jejuni displayed higher prevalence of resistance to erythromycin than C. coli in all investigated sources (p>0.05). All ciprofloxacin and 94.4% of erythromycin positive isolated were highly resistant (>= 32 mu g/mL and >= 128 mu g/mL, respectively). Conclusion The high prevalence of C. coli isolates from humans, poultry meat and poultry and higher both overall and erythromycin-resistance in C. jejuni than in C. coli isolates suggests that there may be a common source in the environment, which might be absent in other geographical regions. Further studies are required to determine the role of efflux mechanism in erythromycin- and ciprofloxacin-resistance related to the level of resistance.