European Pesticides Residues Workshop

Genotyping by PFGE revealed a high degree of diversity,which is a well known phenomenon for bacteria of the genus Campylobacter . But despite the weak clonality of C . spp.,10.6% of human isolates were genetically identical withisolates found in the same geographical region and time frameon retail chicken products. Thus, it can be concluded that retailchicken products are an important source for sporadic humaninfections with C. spp. in Germany. C . spp. with the same Sma I + Kpn I PFGE type did not alwayshave identical resistance phenotypes, but the geneticallyidentical strains found in human and chicken productsdisplayed the same antimicrobial resistances. More researchis needed to evaluate whether subtyping of C. spp. byantimicrobial resistance patterns may offer an interestingalternative as a phenotyping method, e.g. for identification ofsmall outbreaks.In general, more research (analysis of larger numbers ofisolates, use of a second molecular typing method) is neededto fully assess the impact of poultry products as vectors forsporadic Campylobacter infections.