| Resum: |
Campylobacter spp. , are the main cause of human gastroenteritis in Europe and in USA, with poultry as the main source of infection. Other sources of infection exist, including wild fauna, but its contribution to human infection is still poorly known. The presence of wild boars is growing in urban environments, and consequently the risk of transmission of zoonotic pathogens is increasing as well. To gain insight into the epidemiology and virulence potential of Campylobacter spp. , C. coli and C. lanienae isolated from wild boars circulating in the Metropolitan area of Barcelona were analyzed. The isolates had previously been typed by PFGE and isolates representative of the different pulsotypes have been analyzed in this study by MLST and screened by PCR for the presence of putative virulence factors. A high genetic diversity was observed amongst both Campylobacter species. A total of 12 different STs, of which 4 were novel, were identified among C. coli isolates; ST 854, belonging to the clonal complex CC 828 was the most prevalent. All C. lanienae isolates (unless four alleles; uncA 7, uncA 12, glnA 12, glyA 21) belonged to novel STs and to determine the relationship among them, a phylogenetic tree was constructed using concatenated MLST loci. Three C. lanienae isolates from two different areas showed 100% similarity and whilst two other isolates were also closely related and differed only in 6 nucleotides. In both Campylobacter species some genotypes (ST 854, ST 827, ST 9235 in C. coli) were found in the different studied areas, indicating a possible circulation of those strains among wild boars from urban and natural areas (Collserola massif and UAB campus). Besides the novel STs, all other C. coli STs have been associated with human gastroenteritis. Some virulence genes like flaB, ceuE and hcp have been detected in the majority of the isolates whereas the prevalence of other genes (ciaB, racR and wlaN) was low. In addition, some isolates were positive for 12 of the 14 virulence genes analyzed, suggesting a high pathogenic potential. Our results show that wild boars from the metropolitan area of Barcelona are carriers of Campylobacter genotypes associated with human gastroenteritis that also show a high virulence potential. These findings are of public health concern because of the increasing contact of these wild boars with humans in the studied areas. |
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