PFGE used in quantitative analysis of Campylobacter jejuni

The pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, a major cause of gastroenteritis, was the subject of recent quantitative analysis undertaken by scientists at a number of research facilities in Thailand and overseas.

A team of scientists worked on the project, including representatives of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Bumrungrad Hospital, also in Bangkok, Copenhagen University in Denmark, the Naval Medical Research Center in Maryland and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, also in Maryland.

Their findings, published in the infection pathogenesis periodical Gut Pathogens, detail the quantitative analysis they carried out using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

Between 2001 and 2003, 81.9 per cent of C jejuni isolates from US military personnel and travellers suffering from gastroenteritis in Thailand were seen to be resistant to tetracycline.

Some 57.9 per cent of pathogens were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, with 28.9 per cent also unaffected by ampicillin.

"Most human C jejuni isolates from Thailand were multi-resistant to quinolones and tetracycline," the researchers note in their report.