Campylobacter coli and C. jejuni isolated from farmed pigs in Grenada, West Indies and their antimicrobial resistance patterns

Rectal swabs from 138 grower pigs consisting of animals from all six parishes in the island of Grenada, West Indies, were cultured for thermophilic Campylobacter spp. on a selective supplemented blood-free agar medium under microaerophilic conditions at 42°C, and identified by phenotypic methods, including hippurate test and sensitivity to nalidixic acid and resistance to cephalothin. Ninty nine of the 138 samples (71.7%) were positive for Campylobacter spp., of which 56 (57%) were C. coli and 43 (43%) were C. jejuni. There were significant differences among parishes in percent of samples positive for Campylobacter spp. The proportion of C. coli and C. jejuni were also found to vary among the Parishes. There were no significant differences in isolation rates between sexes and age groups of pigs.