Studies on the epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni

Over the last few years the bacterial species Campylobacter jejuni has been recognized as an important cause of acute enteritis in man. Investigations in several countries have shown that infections caused by C. jejuni may be as serious as those due to Salmonella spp., both in prevalence and in the severity of symptoms. In the Netherlands, campylobacters and salmonellae are each responsible for about 10 % of all cases of acute enteritis. Campylobacteriosis is mostly a food-borne infection. In the epidemiological studies described here it was found that in the Netherlands poultry and pigs in particular are healthy intestinal carriers of large numbers of C.jejuni. These intestinal organisms readily contaminate the meat during slaughter. As a consequence, f.jejuni was frequently isolated from poultry carcasses and from other poultry end-products at the processing plants. However, pork in butchers' shops appeared to be free from such contamination. It was found that this was due to the inability of campylobacters to survive the drying effect of the chilling process used for pig carcasses in the slaughterhouse. Poultry products are mostly chilled in another manner, without the possibility of drying, so that campylobacters on poultry meat, in contrast to those on pork, in fact reach the consumer.