Comparative Studies on Growth Performance of Thermophilic Campylobacters Isolated from Wild Animals on different Culture Media

Abstract

Campylobacter species are one of the important foodborne zoonotic bacterial pathogens triggering enteritis in domestic, wild captive and non-captive animals as well as birds that spreads through different environmental sources as water, feed, meat and milk. In the present study comparative isolation and identification of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli was attempted from faecal samples of wild animals during the year 2020-2021. A total of 430 faecal samples were collected from zoos/wild life sanctuaries and national parks of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh states. Since thermophilic Campylobacters- target bacteria are microaerophilic and fastidious in nature, require specific temperature and nutrition for its optimum growth, hence to find out the suitable selective media, present study was designed. After aseptic collection, processing and primary isolation, growth of identified Campylobacters were assessed on five artificial media, broadly categorized into blood free and blood containing media. The overall positivity of Campylobacter spp. was 59 of 430 (13.72%) with Campylobacter jejuni (7.67 per cent) and Campylobacter coli (6.05 per cent). After enrichment, plating on CBA with selective supplement yielded a significantly higher (P<0.05) prevalence (4.65%) of Campylobacter species. No significant differences could be observed in mCCDA (3.72%) and BA (3.48%). Least isolation observed on CA (2.0%) and HCCA (1.16%). Multiplex PCR results confirmed speciation as well as sensitivity of each culture methods. As the majority of Campylobacter spp. were isolated by CBA with selective supplement. Hence, this may be the method of choice for isolation of Campylobacter species because of presence of hemin in sheep blood as oxygen quenching agent.