AUTHOR=Abd El-Hamid Marwa I. , Abd El-Aziz Norhan K. , Samir Mohamed , El-Naenaeey El-sayed Y. , Abo Remela Etab M. , Mosbah Rasha A. , Bendary Mahmoud M. 

TITLE=Genetic Diversity of Campylobacter jejuni Isolated From Avian and Human Sources in Egypt

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02353

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2019.02353

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Campylobacter jejuni</italic> (<italic>C. jejuni</italic>) are able to colonise and infect domestic poultry and also pose a risk for humans. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of genotypic diversity among <italic>C. jejuni</italic> isolates recovered from avian and human sources in Egypt. Furthermore, the short variable region (SVR) of flagellin A (<italic>flaA</italic>) gene was analysed for the presence of allelic variants. Our results showed that <italic>C. jejuni</italic> isolates differ in their capacity to harbour each of the virulence genes alone or when present in various combinations. The <italic>flaA</italic> gene was detected in all <italic>C. jejuni</italic> strains and none of the strains had all the studied virulence genes together. When considering <italic>C. jejuni</italic> strains from the investigated sources, the <italic>cdtC</italic> gene was the most similar, while the <italic>cdtB</italic> and <italic>iam</italic> genes were the most dissimilar. We could identify 13 novel alleles in the analysed strains. The analyses of virulence gene patterns, <italic>flaA</italic> gene sequences and allelic variants showed that <italic>C. jejuni</italic> strains from different sources overlapped largely suggesting potential involvement of poultry in transmitting <italic>C. jejuni</italic> to humans. We also found that the strains isolated from the same host were highly heterogeneous, with chicken strains exhibiting the highest diversity. Moreover, the human strains were clustered closer to chicken ones than to those from pigeon. The results of this study should be taken into consideration when assessing the epidemiology and risk potential of Egyptian <italic>C. jejuni</italic> not only in poultry, but also in humans.</p>