Isolation of thermotolerant species of Campylobacter from river water using two collection methods

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli are zoonotic agents of intestinal infection that could contaminate water bodies. Several outbreaks of Campylobacter gastroenteritis associated with the consumption of contaminated water have been reported. Various methods have been described to determine the presence of these bacteria in water bodies. In this study the performance of the Moore swab (MSM) and the filtration through membrane methods (MFM) for the isolation of Campylobacter from 181 water samples obtained from the urban course of the Calle-Calle river water samples was compared. Campylobacter species were isolated in 24.3% of the samples obtained with MSM and in 7.2% of those processed by MFM thus, appearing MSM as an efficient method to isolate Campylobacter from river water samples.