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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #115521
Title: IDENTIFICATION OF CAMPYLOBACTER SPECIES BY PCR-BASED METHODS

Author
item Wesley, Irene
item RANSOM, G - USDA-FSIS
item Franklin, Sharon

Submitted to: Food Safety Consortium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/19/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Isolates of Campylobacter-like organisms (n = 77) were obtained during an on-going FSIS baseline study of poultry carcass washes. Isolates were presumptively identified as either nalidixic-acid resistant C. jejuni or C. lari. C. lari is usually distinguished from C. jejuni based on sensitivity of nalidixic acid. However, nalidixic acid resistance has emerged in C. jejuni thus confounding this useful diagnostic test. The goal of this study was to use PCR- based assays to differentiate C. lari from C. jejuni using targets other than those encoding drug resistance. None of the isolates were identified as C. lari using a conventinal PCR assay amplifying genes encoding 16S rRNA. Conventional multiplex PCR identified 36% (28/77) isolates as C. jejuni. In contrast, the more highly specific and sensitive fluorogenic based assay identified 65% (49/75) isolates as C. jejuni. Based on the results of this study, it is proposed that 16S rRNA sequencing may accelerate species identification and thus bypass the need for performing multiple PCR assays for speciation of Campylobacter.