Occurrence of virulence genes among Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolates from domestic animals and children.

The presence of the flaA, cadF, cdtB and iam genes of Campylobacter spp. was determined with the PCR method. The materials to investigate were 56 C. jejuni and 23 C. coli strains isolated from clinical samples (children and domestic animals). It was found that all of the Campylobacter spp. isolates from children with diarrhoea and domestic animals had cadF gene, responsible for adherence. The flaA gene was present in all Campylobacter spp. isolates derived from children and cats. Occurrence of flaA gene was confirmed in 100% of C. jejuni strains obtained from dogs. The high prevalence of the cdtB gene associated with toxin production was observed in this study (100%-Campylobacter spp. isolates obtained from dogs and cats, 97.9%-Campylobacter spp. isolates from children). The isolates showed a wide variation for the presence of iam gene. The lowest prevalence (23.5%) was detected in Campylobacter spp. obtained from dogs. The highest rates of iam detection (91.6%) were revealed in C. coli isolates from children.