Investigating Carriage, Contamination, Antimicrobial Resistance and Assessment of Colonization Risk Factors of Campylobacter spp. in Broilers from Selected Farms in Thika, Kenya

Aims: To investigate carriage and contamination rates of chicken broiler meat, the factors that are associated with Campylobacter spp. colonization and its phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance from Thika small-scale poultry farms.

Study Design: The study design was cross-sectional and laboratory based, it employed simple random sampling across 18 small-scale farms.

Site and Duration of Study: The study was conducted between August and December 2017 at Thika sub-county, a town located 42 Km North East of Nairobi.

Methodology: One hundred and eighty five cloaca swab samples from live broilers and 158 neck swab samples from broiler carcasses were collected. Isolates were obtained by plating method using mCCDA, conventional methods and duplex PCR were used for the isolation and identification of Campylobacter species.

Results: Carriage prevalence was at 15.67%, significantly (P = .000) lower than contamination prevalence detected at 30.37%. While the overall Campylobacter spp. prevalence was 22.45%. Risk of Campylobacter colonization in the flock doubled in feeding broilers with chicken waste and older poultry, at (OR: 2.57, 95% CI: 0.19 - 34.47) and (OR: 2.00, 95% CI: 0.312 - 12.84) respectively. The Campylobacter spp. were resistant (P < .05) against Ciprofloxacin, Streptomycin, and Trimethoprim between carriage and contamination. MDR was 79.22%; XDR was 12.98% while no PDR recorded.

Conclusion: Broilers in Thika region are potentially important source of human infection and possible continuity of infection from the threat posed by Campylobacter carrier broilers. Presence of sulI and dhfr genes with high resistance observed for quinolones, sulfonamides, ß-lactams and trimethoprim, thus posing a major public health problem for consumers of poultry products.