KAFKAS UNIVERSITESI VETERINER FAKULTESI DERGISI, cilt.20, sa.5, ss.735-741, 2014 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, the determination of prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter species in dogs and cats with and without diarrhoea using 3 different cultural methods was aimed. For this purpose, rectal swabs were collected from 120 dogs and 15 cats and 14 of them (12 dogs and 2 cats) were taken from diarrhoeic animals. The isolation of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. was conducted by direct plating onto modified charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar (mCCDA) supplemented with CCDA (cefoperazone, amphotericin B) or CAT (cefoperazone, amphotericin and teicoplanin) for all samples and membrane filtration method onto Mueller-Hinton Agar supplemented with 5% defibrinated sheep blood for samples from diarrhoeic pets and identification of isolates was performed using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR). The overall prevalence of Campylobacter species was found to be 40.0% and 26.7% in dogs and cats, respectively. Campylobacter jejuni was the most frequent bacterium isolated from 36 dogs and 4 cats. C. upsaliensis, C. coli and C. lari were isolated from 10 dogs and 1 cat, 5 dogs and 2 healthy dogs respectively. For the isolation of thermophilic Campylobacter spp., whilst the method using CAT as selective supplement being more sensitive in dogs, the membrane filtration appeared as the most suitable method in diarrhoeic dogs. These results showed the occurrence of a relatively high carriage of Campylobacter spp., particularly in healthy dogs that may constitute a non negligible risk for public health.