Diversity of thermophilic Campylobacter isolated from slaughter pigs in Norway

Of 100 faecal swab samples 88 thermophilic Campylobacter (88%) representing ten herds was isolated. The species were identified by biotyping and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Of the isolates, 86 (97.7%) were C. coli one was C. lari and one was C. jejuni. All three species was isolated from the same herd. Automatic riboprints were performed with the PstI restriction enzyme and RiboPrinter®. The identification of the isolates was predicted when the corresponding pattern matched one of the patterns of the DuPont identification (DUP-ID) library and was then assigned an identification number. A total of 81 selected C. coli isolates were riboprinted and divided into two clades and five subclades and 19 isolates could be given five different Dup-ID from the library, DUP-PST1-1182 (n=6), DUP-PST1-1208 (n=10), DUP-PST1-1175 (n=1), DUP-PST1-1140 (n=1) and DUP-PST1-1163 (n=1). Pigs are healthy carriers of C. coli that showed a high grade of diversity between and within the herdsVytauto Didžiojo universiteta