Identification of Thermotolerant Campylobacter Species by Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH)

Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. (C. jejuni, C. coli, C. lari, and C. upsaliensis) are leading causes of foodborne diarrhea in humans. In this study the usefulness of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the identification of Campylobacter isolates was investigated. A hierarchical FISH-probe set including 6 group-, genus-, and species-specific probes was developed and evaluated on 12 reference strains and 94 clinical isolates of Campylobacter, Arcobacter and Helicobacter. FISH correctly identified all isolates to genus level and detected all thermotolerant Campylobacter. The assay showed a high sensitivity for the identification of C. jejuni (90%), C. coli (97%), C. lari (81%) and C. upsaliensis (100%) to species level