Molecular typing of Campylobacter jejuni diarrhoeal isolates in a hospital in Makokou, Gabon by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR

<b>Context</b> <i><b>.</b> Campylobacter jejuni</i>is responsible for 80% of the cases of human foodborne bacterial enteric infections worldwide. However, limited data on its genetic diversity exist, especially using the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR (ERIC-PCR). The study aimed to determine the genetic diversity of <i>C. jejuni</i> strains isolated from infant diarrhoeal faeces at the Omar Bongo Ondimba Regional Health Center of Makokou (CHROBOM), Gabon. <b>Materials and methods.</b> A total of 58 strains of <i>C. jejuni</i> from patients with gastroenteritis were used in this study. The ERIC-PCR method was used to characterize genetic diversity. The binomial manual method via the online analysis system (http://insilico.ehu.es/dice_upgma/) was used to establish the dendrogram and calculate the discriminatory power of the Simpson diversity index (<i>D</i>). <b>Results.</b> The genotyping of <i>C. jejuni</i> isolates by the ERIC-PCR method revealed a discriminatory index <i>D</i>=0.8451, dividing the 58 isolates into 10 clusters, with 33 genotypic profiles, including 22 non-repeated profiles and 11 repeated profiles. These results indicate a rather polymorphic diversity of <i>C. jejuni</i> in the Makokou region of Gabon. <b>Conclusion.</b> The high discriminatory diversity index obtained in this study demonstrates the polymorphic richness within <i>C. jejuni</i> strains as revealed by the ERIC-PCR method.