ANALYSIS OF DISTRIBUTION OF CAMPYLOBACTER-JEJUNI AND CAMPYLOBACTER-COLI IN BROILERS BY USING RESTRICTION-FRAGMENT-LENGTH-POLYMORPHISM OF FLAGELLIN GENE

The incidence of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in broile r farms was 33.9% (19/56). C. jejuni-positive flocks accounted for 20. 0% (17/85) and C. coli-positive ones was 4.7% (4/85). There were 14 pa tterns (fla type) of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) o f flagellin A gene among these 22 strains of C. jejuni and C. coli inc luding the standard strain C. jejuni ATCC 33560. Different fla types o f Campylobacter were isolated from broilers in different growing cycle s on the same farms. Four strains of C. jejuni were isolated from four breeder farms and four fla types of C. jejuni were detected from thei r progenies reared on growing farms. Three fla types of C. jejuni dete cted from the progenies were different from those of each breeder. Als o, the other three fla types of C. jejuni were detected from different progenies of each growing farm during the next growing cycle. These f indings indicate that the RFLP analysis may contribute to epidemiologi cal studies of C. jejuni and C. coli contamination of broilers and sug gest the risk of contamination with different types of Campylobacter i n every growing cycle of broilers on the farm even on the same farm. T hey also supported that there was little likeliness of the vertical tr ansmission of C. jejuni and C. coli from breeders to broilers.