Optimising Recovery of Campylobacter spp. from the Lower Porcine Gastrointestinal Tract

Abstract

During studies on the occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in pigs it was noted that the yield of Campylobacter spp. from the lower gastrointestinal tract, i.e. the ileal contents and the rectum, was poor when compared with published results.⁴ Since the isolates were required by a team developing sub-typing methods it was essential that recoveries were maximised to ensure the microflora isolated was representative of the animals studied. The preliminary study did establish, however, that carriage of campylobacters was extremely common in the herds studied, as noted by Blaser et al ¹ and hence small numbers of animals could be studied in detail with little chance of negative results being obtained. Two principles were chosen to be the basis of the subsequent investigation; direct streaking onto solid selective media, and selective enrichment of samples followed by direct streaking onto solid selective media.