Simple and rapid detection methods for campylobacters

Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli have been leading cause of food poisoning in terms of both number of patients and cases in Japan. Therefore these bacteria are recognized as one of the most important food-borne pathogens. Since campylobacters are microaerobic, slow growing, biochemically unreactive, not only it takes some time but also there are several problems regarding isolation and identification of Campylobacter spp. We found that cytolethal distending toxin (cdt) genes are ubiquitously present in C. jejuni, C. coli and C. fetus in species-specific manner and species-specific multiplex PCRs have been developed on the basis of species-specificity of the cdt genes. In this review, applicability of the cdt gene-based multiplex PCRs as a simple and rapid diagnostic method for clinical and food samples in comparison to the conventional culture methods is described.