Antimicrobial resistance profiling and DNA Amplification Fingerprinting (DAF) of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in human, poultry and porcine samples from the Cork region of Ireland

Antimicrobial resistance (R) typing and DNA Amplification Fingerprinting (D AF) of a random collection of 84 Irish thermophilic Campylobacter isolates is described. The collection included human, veterinary (porcine) and poult ry isolates cultured between 1996 and 1998 in the Cork region of Ireland. B iochemical and molecular methods were used to identify Campylobacter jejuni and Camp. coli. Many of these isolates were simultaneously resistant to se veral common antimicrobial agents. In particular, resistance to ampicillin, spectinomycin, sulphafurazole and tetracycline was common. A total of 74 D AF profiles was identified among the study collection, showing a high degre e of diversity. Dendrogram analysis of the DNA patterns identified three ma in clusters at the 50% similarity level, which included two clusters of Cam p. coli and a third containing a mixture of Camp. jejuni and Camp. coli.