Campylobacter is considered to be a leading bacterial cause of acute enteritis in the United States. Campylobacter is found in the fecal material and the gastrointestinal tract of a broad range of animals. It has been suggested that the greatest cause of human infection is cross-contamination and/or the consumption of undercooked meat and poultry products. In the United States there are limited data on the presence of Campylobacter in cattle. This study investigated the prevalence of Campylobacter (C. jejuni and C. coli) as well as the presence of antibiotic resistant strains in mature cattle at slaughter. Representative fecal samples (n = 610) of the day¡¯s harvest were taken from the colon of mature cattle older than 30 months of age, over a period of 17 months. Species of Campylobacter isolates were determined by polymerase chain reaction. Pure cultures of Campylobacter were obtained from 143 of the 610 samples (23.4%, SE 1.7%). Of the confirmed Campylobacter-positive samples, the majority (93.0%) yielded C. jejuni, with C. coli recovered from the rest (7.0%). Seasonal data showed that Campylobacter prevalence is somewhat greater during the winter (29.4%) as compared to summer months (20.7%) (P ¡Ü 0.05). Some of the isolates were resistant to selected antibiotics, with the greatest incidence being resistance to ampicillin (49.7%). The data imply that there may be a human health risk from the colonization of mature cattle at harvest by Campylobacter. Further research needs to be done to evaluate the food safety impact of Campylobacter colonization of cattle.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-11012004-082702 |
| Date | 04 November 2004 |
| Creators | Gharst, Greg |
| Contributors | Daniel Carroll, Dana Hanson, Sophia Kathariou |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11012004-082702/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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