Abstract
Of 105 bile samples of cattle tested, 57 (54.3%) were found positive for C. jejuni. In 42.9% (45/105) of the samples, the measurement of C. jejuni in the bile exceeded 103 cfu/ml. The contamination level of C. jejuni in the bile of beef cattle was 1,000-10,000 times higher than that found in fresh chicken meat. Although 30% (12/40) of isolates were untypable, 35% (14/40) and 12.5% (5/40) of the isolates were serotyped as the Penner D and Penner B group, respectively. Forty bile isolates examined possessed seven virulence genes: flaA, cdtA, cdtB, cdtC, cmeA, cmeB and cmeC. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was also performed to determine the genotypic relatedness of isolates. All isolates from cattle bile showed high similarity to those from human patients and some showed identical band patterns to those from humans, using four different restriction enzymes. These data indicate that bile of beef cattle could be an important source of C. jejuni food poisoning for humans.
