SHORT-TERM EVIDENCE OF CAMPYLOBACTER IN A TREATMENT-PLANT AND DRAIN WATER OF A CONNECTED POULTRY ABATTOIR

To study the prevalence of Campylobacter in a purification plant, the numbers of Campylobacter in the wastewater and the effluent of an acti vated sludge system and in the drain water of a poultry abattoir, conn ected with this plant were determined in three 24-hour periods. To stu dy transmission routes, the Campylobacter isolates were identified by Penner serotyping and by antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The pou ltry abattoir drain water was considerably contaminated with Campyloba cter (average >5.1 log(10) MPN/100 mL). The numbers of Campylobacter p resent in the wastewater and the effluent of the activated sludge syst em did not increase significantly during the sampling period. The puri fication resulted in a reduction of 1 log(10) unit, but Campylobacter was still detectable in the activated sludge effluent. Patterns in the antimicrobial susceptibility and serotypes did not match for the vari ous types of samples, and therefore, no transmission route could be de duced. This incongruity of patterns may be due to growth competition d uring the enrichment. Therefore, enrichment procedures are not recomme ndable for studies on transmission routes.