Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence Factors of Campylobacter coli Isolated from Chicken in Côte d’Ivoire

Aims: Campylobacters species are major causes of gastroenteritis in human. The main risk factor of infection is consumption of contaminated or by cross-contaminated poultry meat. The aims of this study were to analyze antimicrobial profile and virulence factors associated to Campylobacter coli isolated from chicken’s ceaca in commercial slaughter in Abidjan.

Methodology: A total of 336 chicken ceaca samples were collected from market of two municipality of Abidjan and were examined by conventional microbiological methods and molecular test using PCR. The antibiotic susceptibility tests of the isolates were determined by disk diffusion method the presence of virulence genes was examined using simple PCR method.

Results: From these samples, 210/336 (62.50%) were positives for Campylobacter. Among the isolates, 53 strains confirmed as C. coli by using PCR detection were used for phenotypic and genotypic analysis. Of these strains, 51/53 were positive for one or more antibiotics molecules tested. The highest rate of antimicrobial resistance was found for nalidixic acid 51/53 (96.22%), tetracyclin 49/53 (92.45%) and ciprofloxacin 38/53 (71.69%). Moreover, MDR including 3, 4, 5 and 6 antibiotics families was detected in 11/53 (20.75%) of isolates. On the other hand, detection of virulence gene shows presence of cadF gene in 86.01% of isolates while 82.21% were positive for the three cdt (A, B and C) genes.

Conclusion: We reported in this study the presence of high pathogenic Campylobacter coli contamination of the studied chickens. Molecular identification of the bacteria was performed and determination of high resistance to antimicrobials of the fluoroquinolone family was revealed.