Prevalence and Risk Factor Analysis of Campylobacter in Rural Bangladesh

Campylobacter is the one of the leading bacterial causes of diarrheal disease in the United States. In low and middle-income countries, Campylobacter has been found to be one of the most common diarrheal diseases in children under the age of 5. There are multiple factors that affect transmission, including consuming raw poultry and meat. A large study was undertaken by an international team and data from that study were used for this project. The objective of this study is to describe the strains of Campylobacter carried by humans and animals. 1,927 samples (1,291 human; 635 animal) were screened for Campylobacter jejuni and coli using culture and PCR in Bangladesh, followed by whole genome sequencing (WGS) of isolates. Out of 109 isolates of Campylobacter detected, the majority were C. jejuni at 80 isolates, while the remaining 29 were C. coli. The majority of the 86 chicken stool isolates consisted of C. jejuni, while the 4 pigeon stool isolates contained 2 strains of each C. jejuni and C. coli. The 2 newborn isolates contained solely C. coli, which was also the majority in 7 isolates of the samples from pregnant women, while all 10 isolates from siblings were strains of C. jejuni. The results from this study allow us to understand the differences between Campylobacter carried by humans and animals.