Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern
of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. isolated from
ovine carcasses and faeces in Ethiopia
Seble Hailemariam1, Aklilu Feleke1, Barbara Szonyi2, Reinhard Fries3, Maximilian Baumann3 and
Delia Grace2
1Addis Ababa University, 2International Livestock Research Institute, 3Freie Universität Berlin
Background
Thermophilic Campylobacter spp. are a frequent cause of
food-borne illness worldwide. In Ethiopia, Campylobacter
spp. are the most frequently isolated bacteria from stools
of children with diarrhea. Livestock, particularly chicken
followed by ruminants and pigs are natural intestinal
carriers of Campylobacter spp.
Pictures
Conclusions
• At the abattoir, carcass contamination should be reduced
during the slaughter process to protect the public from
exposure to pathogenic Campylobacter spp.
• We detected multidrug resistance to drugs not used in the
treatment of sheep, suggesting that the origin of
resistance was drugs used to treat human infections.
Results
• From 160 carcass swabs, 21 (13.1%) were positive for
Campylobacter, of which 12 (57.1%) were C. jejuni, six
(28.6%) were C. coli and three (14.3%) were C. lari.
• Examination of 160 rectal swab samples revealed that 12
(7.5%) were harbouring thermophilic Campylobacter spp.
• A total of eight environmental samples were examined and
seven (87.5%) of them were positive for thermophilic
Campylobacter spp.
• Multidrug-resistance to two or more antimicrobials was
detected in 11/21 (52.4%) of the isolates.
• Resistance was highest to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (42.1%)
and kanamycin (42.1%).
Barbara Szonyi
b.szonyi@cgiar.org ● Box 5689 Addis Ababa Ethiopia ● +251 11 617 2000
Addis Ababa Ethiopia ● ilri.org
This project was conducted under the Safe Food, Fair Food project funded by International
Agricultural Research, GTZ, Germany (Project no: 11.7860.7-001.00)
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License June 2015
June 2015
Methods
• A cross-sectional , abattoir-based study was conducted in 2014
in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia to determine the
prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of thermophilic
Campylobacter spp. in sheep carcasses and faeces. Composite
environmental samples were also taken from the surfaces of
walls, personnel’s hands, knives, hooks and aprons.
• Hippurate hydrolysis and susceptibility to nalidixic acid formed
the basis for the identification of C. jejuni, C. coli and C. lari.
• Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed using the
standard disc diffusion method towards 12 antimicrobials.
NA=Nalidixic Acid, AMC=Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, S=Streptomycin, DA=Clindamycin
W=Trimethoprim, CRO=Ceftriaxone, K=Kanamycin, S3=Compound sulphonamide,
AMC=Ampicillin, E=Erythromycin, OT=Oxytetracycline
Combinations of drugs All
strains n=21
C. jejuni
n=12
C. coli
n=6
C. lari
n=3
W-K-S-P-AMC-S3 2(9.5) 1(8.3) 1(16.7) -
NA-K-OT-S3 1(4.8) - - 1(33.3)
S-AMC 1(4.8) 1(8.3) - -
NA-W-K-S-OT-AMC-S3 1(4.8) - - 1(33.3)
W-OT-P-AMP-AMC-CRO-
E
1(4.8) - 1(16.7) -
K-S-DA-OT-S3-E 1(4.8) 1(8.3) - -
OT-AMC 1(4.8) 1(8.3) - -
OT-P-AMP-AMC-S3 1(4.8) 1(8.3) - -
NA-K-S-OT-S3 1(4.8) - - 1(33.3)
NA-K 1(4.8) 1(8.3) - -
A: carcass sampling sites; B:hippurate hydrolysis; C: antimicrobial susceptibility
testing
A
B
C