Campylobacter Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Campylobacter, including details on food poisoning, infection, symptoms, treatment.

Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter isolated from retail raw chicken and beef meat, Tehran, Iran.

Taremi M, Mehdi Soltan Dallal M, Gachkar L, MoezArdalan S, Zolfagharian K, Reza Zali M

National Research Department of Foodborne Diseases (NRDFD), Research Center of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Taleghani Hospital, Tabnak St., Evin, Tehran, Iran. mmtaremi@yahoo.com

Campylobacter spp. is a leading cause of human diarrhea. The common source of infection is contaminated food, particularly poultry. The veterinary use of antimicrobial drugs has been suggested to be largely responsible for resistance in human isolates of this zoonotic pathogen. From April to October 2004, 241 samples of chicken and beef meat for sale in retail outlets in Tehran (Iran) were analyzed for the presence of Campylobacter. Totally, 88 (36.5%) Campylobacter strains were isolated. Campylobacter was isolated from a significantly larger number of chicken (63%) than beef (10%) meat (P < 0.0001). Susceptibilities of 72 strains were determined for eight antimicrobial drugs using the disk diffusion assay. Resistance to nalidixic acid was the most common finding (75%), followed by resistance to ciprofloxacin (69.4%), tetracycline (45.8%), amoxicillin (11.1%), streptomycin (4.2%), chloramphenicol (2.8%) and gentamicin (1.4%). None of the isolates was resistant to erythromycin. Multidrug resistance was seen in 75% of the Campylobacter strains.

Published 5 April 2006 in Int J Food Microbiol, 108(3): 401-3.
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