The serotype distribution of Campylobacter jejuni strains among gastroenteritis in hospitals over 7 year period in Tokyo

: Campylobacter jejuni strains isolated from gastroenteritis at 4 general hospitals of Tokyo Metropolitan during the period from 1981 to 1987 were serotype according to the slide agglutination test (TCK system) developed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health. Two thousand four hundred seventy-nine strains isolated from sporadic cases among infants and children, 1,962 (78.5%) were typed by 33 typing sera numbered TCK 1 through TCK 33 and leaving 537 strains (21.5%) untypable. Out of the typable strains, 1,643 strains reacted with only single serum, while 319 strains reacted with 2 or more antisera. The most common serogroups included TCK 21, 20, 7, 1, 4, 23, 24, 10, 30 and 12. Out of the 1,250 strains isolated from sporadic cases among adults, 974 strains (77.9%) were typed and 276 strains were untypable. The most common serogroups were similar to those of infants and children. Serogroups TCK 1, 7, 4 and 21 were consistently the common serogroups every year during the 7 year study. Isolation frequency of serogroup TCK 30 have increased remarkably since 1986, while TCK 23, 14 and 9 have decreased.