| Campylobacter is recognized as the main cause of bacterial diarrhea in humans worldwide. Most infections in humans are caused by C. jejuni and C. coli and remain sporadic. The transmission occurs most of the time by contaminated water, unpasteurized milk or contaminated food. Meat from poultry, pigs and cattle is considered among the most frequent vector of transmission for the disease. The high rate of Campylobacter recovered from these animals increases the risk of contamination of the carcasses following the slaughtering process. Improperly handled or cooked food may thus result in the development of Campylobacter infections. Little is known about the risk of contamination for humans associated with the consumption of meat products from swine. The analysis and the characterization of this risk were at the origin of the current study.; Intestinal contents from 850 healthy pigs, collected at the slaughterhouse, and 278 samples of feces from patients with diarrhea were analyzed. Among the Campylobacter recovered, a sub-set of 100 isolates from swine and all 24 isolates from humans were characterized genotypically and phenotypically by PFGE and in vitro toxins assays.; A high genetic diversity, near 80%, was observed among the two Campylobacter populations. Genetic diversity was also observed among isolates originating from the same animal. However, no genetic link between isolates from human and from swine was observed in this study. The phenotypic analysis of toxins production by Campylobacter demonstrated that isolates recovered in this study had weak cytotoxicity properties in vitro.; The recent increase in resistance to antimicrobial agents among Campylobacter represents another concern for human health. Some bacterial strains from meat could represent a potential reservoir of resistant isolates transmissible to humans. Also, the wide use of antimicrobial agents at the farm level could select for resistant isolates and promote the persistence of those strains.; In the current study, the great majority of Campylobacter isolates from swine, poultry and human were resistant to tetracycline. Also, our results suggest that some resistant isolates could express another genetic determinant than tetO for resistance to tetracycline. Resistance to fluoroquinolone in Campylobacter, an emerging problem in public health, was observed in this study. Among the C. jejuni from humans, 8.7% were resistant to ciprofloxacin.; An analysis on the impact of the use of antimicrobial agents was done among 27 swine herds, focusing on farms using or not antimicrobial agents of tetracycline or fluoroquinolone type. The analysis of Campylobacter isolates from those farms showed that there was no significant difference between rates of resistance in bacteria among herds with or without use of tetracycline or enrofloxacin. |
