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Listen to this siteTuesday 26 July 2005
This research project will characterise, by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and analyse 1000 campylobacter isolates from Food Standards Agency retail poultry surveys (CLASSP study, Welsh/NI chicken survey, 2001 chicken survey).
Study Duration : April 2005 to March 2006
Contractor : University of Oxford
MLST is a high resolution and unambiguous approach to characterisation of isolates that allows comparison between different studies and analysis by a variety of quantitative techniques.
The molecular characterisation of a representative sample of retail poultry meat isolates will provide a resource which by analysis in association with other collections of isolates will enable the following to be evaluated:
A database of isolates will be established for this project and linked to the existing campylobacter MLST profiles database available on the internet.
The approaches and research plan are as follows:
Typing and comparison of Campylobacters from various sources can provide information on the epidemiology of Campylobacter and identification of potential sources of human infection. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a high resolution typing method, less sensitive to genetic instability than other typing approaches. This study used MLST to type a selection of Campylobacter isolates from UK retail chicken for population characterisation, comparison with human and other host source isolates and analysis of sequence type in relation to the chicken sample details.
The project applied MLST and antigen typing to 1003 Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolates from UK wide retail poultry surveys carried out between 2001 and 2005. Analysis of sequence type alongside survey sample details showed that the dominant subtypes of C. jejuni in retail chicken changed significantly during the four year period covered by the studies but did not change seasonally. Results also showed that organic and free range chicken had relatively more C. coli and less C. jejuni than intensively produced chicken but there was no evidence for different subtypes of C. jejuni associated with the different production types. Isolates from UK-produced chickens appeared similar to those produced in other European countries and subtypes in fresh and frozen poultry were also similar.
Comparison with other host sources showed that C. jejuni subtypes found on chicken meat closely resemble Campylobacter isolated from human infections. In addition, isolates from retail poultry were more similar to published isolates from chickens than those from other host animal species further demonstrating association of Campylobacter subtype with host species.
Typing and sample details from this study are held on a publically accessible website, providing a valuable reference database of the types of Campylobacter typical in chicken and a resource for comparison with further typed collections as these become available. The overlap with poultry and human Campylobacter genotypes demonstrated in this study provides further evidence that poultry is the origin of a large proportion of human cases, confirming this is an area where the Agency needs to focus activity in order to reduce foodborne illness further.
The final report is available from the Agency’s Information Centre.
To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Information Services, Food Standards Agency (tel: 020 7276 8181/8182 or email:
infocentre@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
)
For any enquiries concerning this research project, please contact the relevant Programme contact or email: science@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
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