Volume: 55 Issue: 2
Year: 2024, Page: 325-329, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.2.325-329
Received: Nov. 10, 2023 Accepted: Feb. 7, 2024 Published: June 30, 2024
Globally, campylobacteriosis is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis in humans. Campylobacter is an enteric pathogen present as a commensal in the gastrointestinal tract of a wide variety of animals and birds. Poultry, pig and livestock are the main reservoirs and the disease spread mainly by consumption of contaminated meat and milk. Contact with companion animals and contaminated environment (water and soil) also add to the risk of acquiring this infection. In the light of increasing trend of rearing pets in households in the post-covid period, the risk of Campylobacter infection from cats has to be investigated. Rats which are peri-domestic animals may contaminate the livestock farms rearing food animals and so may serve as a source of transmission of the disease. Rectal swabs were collected from cats (70) presented to veterinary hospitals and various households, and caecal samples were collected from rats (60) caught from different households and farm premises of Thrissur district. Campylobacter could not be detected in samples from cats by conventional culture technique and direct broth polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Out of the 60 samples collected from rats, no samples were positive for Campylobacter by conventional culture technique, but six (10 %) samples collected from rats procured from poultry farm premises were found to be positive for Campylobacter spp. by direct broth PCR. Of the six isolates obtained by direct PCR, five were identified as C. jejuni and one as C. coli. The presence of Campylobacter spp. in rat, increase the risk of transmission of the bacteria to farm animals and thereby potentially contaminate the food chain, resulting in human infections. A one health approach is needed to combat the occurrence and transmission of the disease in animals and humans.
Keywords: Campylobacter, rat, cat
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© 2024 Shahna et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Shahna, R.S., Jolly, D., Sunil, B., Menon, K.V. and Vinod Kumar, K. 2024. Occurrence of Campylobacteriosis in cats and rats in Thrissur, Kerala. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55(2):325-329
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.2.325-329