Original Research

Detection and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance genes in Campylobacter spp. isolated from chickens and humans

Samantha Reddy, Oliver T. Zishiri
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research | Vol 84, No 1 | a1411 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ojvr.v84i1.1411 | © 2017 Samantha Reddy, Oliver T. Zishiri | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 14 December 2016 | Published: 29 May 2017

About the author(s)

Samantha Reddy, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Oliver T. Zishiri, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Campylobacter spp. are common pathogenic bacteria in both veterinary and human medicine. Infections caused by Campylobacter spp. are usually treated using antibiotics. However, the injudicious use of antibiotics has been proven to spearhead the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was to detect the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in Campylobacter spp. isolated from chickens and human clinical cases in South Africa. One hundred and sixty one isolates of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were collected from chickens and human clinical cases and then screened for the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes. We observed a wide distribution of the tetO gene, which confers resistance to tetracycline. The gyrA genes that are responsible quinolone resistance were also detected. Finally, our study also detected the presence of the blaOXA-61, which is associated with ampicillin resistance. There was a higher (p < 0.05) prevalence of the studied antimicrobial resistance genes in chicken faeces compared with human clinical isolates. The tetO gene was the most prevalent gene detected, which was isolated at 64% and 68% from human and chicken isolates, respectively. The presence of gyrA genes was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with quinolone resistance. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the presence of gyrA (235 bp), gyrA (270 bp), blaOXA-61 and tetO antimicrobial resistance genes in C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from chickens and human clinical cases. This indicates that Campylobacter spp. have the potential of resistance to a number of antibiotic classes.

Keywords

Antimicrobial; quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR); resistance; ampicillin; tetracycline; ciprofloxacin

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Crossref Citations

1. A review of antibiotic resistance among Campylobacter species in human, animal, and water sources in South Africa: a One Health Approach
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Journal of Water and Health  vol: 21  issue: 1  first page: 9  year: 2023  
doi: 10.2166/wh.2022.146