Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Campylobacter species Isolated From Chicken and Beef Meat

Background: To study prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in chicken and beef meat, and determine the drug susceptibility of strains, 450 samples in Tehran, Iran were investigated. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and the antimicrobial resistance of entropathogenic Campylobacter strains ,especially C. jejuni isolated from raw chicken and beef meat in Tehran- Iran. Materials and Methods: Out of 250 chickens and 200 beef meats, 121(26.8 %) contaminated cases with Campylobacter strains were isolated. Campylobacter was isolated from a significantly larger number of chickens (44%) than beef meats (5.5 %) (P < 0.05). Results: From all isolated Campylobacter organisms, 93 (76.8%) species were identified as C. jejuni and 28 cases (23.1%) as C. coli. Susceptibilities of 121 strains (93 C. jejuni and 28 C. coli) were determined against 12 antimicrobial drugs using the disk agar diffusion method. Resistance to nalidixic acid (75%) and ciprofloxacin (50%) was an alarming finding, moreover, 32.6% of isolates was resistant to tetracycline, 10.8% to ampicillin, 29.3% to colisitin and 26.1% to amoxicillin. The highest sensitivity was seen to erythromycin (95 %) and gentamicin (96%). Conclusions: These results showed that a high proportion of chicken and beef meat in Iran is contaminated with Campylobacter, particularly with Campylobacter jejuni. The high rate of contamination, especially chicken is a significant public health concern. Most of the isolates were resistant; therefore, human infection with Campylobacter spp. via consumption of these products is possible.