Transmissão vertical de Campylobacter sp em um sistema de produção avícola

Abstract

Campylobacter sp is recognized as one of the main causes of human gastroenteritis of food origin. Among the foods that circulate these microorganism, chicken is the meat most involved. Existent studies about the vertical transmission of Campylobacter sp are scarce and inconclusive. The aim of this study was to verify the vertical transmission of Campylobacter sp from heavy matrixes to the progeny. With the use of the traditional culture method, cloacal swabs of 279 heavy matrix samples were analyzed from the follow sits: 6 bed, 4 nest, 11 ovary and oviduct, 11 liver, spleen and heart and 11 intestine. In 11 cloacal swab samples polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was also performed, using the automated BAX® system. In progeny samples, the following were analyzed: 78 and 44 fresh eggs, disinfected and not disinfected, respectively, 12 infertile eggs, 45 unhatched eggs, 13 hatching environment samples, 121 meconium samples and 36 organ samples (heart, liver, spleen) and 36 intestines from one-day old chickens. The analyses were performed by the traditional culture method. In another 10 meconium samples, analysis was performed by the BAX® method. The positivity in the cloacal swab samples by the traditional culture method was 13.97% and by the BAX® methodology it was 54.54%. The bed samples, positivity was 83.33% and in the nest samples it was 0.25%. In matrix organs, Campylobacter sp was only isolated in 27.27% of samples and only in the intestines. There was no positivity in any of the samples of fresh eggs, infertile eggs, embryonic eggs, chicken organs or from the hatching environment. By the traditional culture method there was no positivity in the meconium, but with the use of the BAX® system, positivity was 80%. Although the physiological characteristics of the matrixes, the eggs and Campylobacter sp are favorable to the entry and survival of bacteria in the eggs, and consequently in the one-day old chickens, in this study, positivity in the progeny was only found with the use of the BAX® system. These findings suggest that further studies with the use of molecular techniques should be conducted to verify vertical transmission.