Masashi Okamura: Laboratory of Zoonoses, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Miyuki Kaneko: Laboratory of Zoonoses, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Shinjiro Ojima: Laboratory of Zoonoses, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Hiroki Sano: Laboratory of Zoonoses, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Junji Shindo: Laboratory of Wildlife Science, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Hiroaki Shirafuji: Subtropical Disease Control Unit, Division of Transboundary Animal Diseases, Kyusyu Research Station, National Institute of Animal Health, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization.
Satomi Yamamoto: Laboratory of Microbiology, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Taishi Tanabe: Laboratory of Microbiology, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Yasuhiro Yoshikawa: Faculty of Risk and Crisis Management, Chiba Institute of Science.
Dong-Liang Hu: Laboratory of Zoonoses, Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Salmonella and Campylobacter cause foodborne enteritis mainly via the consumption of raw/undercooked contaminated poultry meat and products. Broiler flocks are primarily colonized with these bacteria; however, the underlying etiology remains unclear. The present study was conducted in order to obtain further information on the prevalence and genotypic distribution of Salmonella and Campylobacter in free-living crows and broiler flocks in a region for 2 years, thereby facilitating estimations of the potential risk of transmission of C. jejuni from crows to broiler flocks. Salmonella serovars Bredeney and Derby were isolated from 8 and 3 out of 123 captured crows, respectively, both of which are not common in broiler chickens. Campylobacter were isolated from all 89 crows tested and C. jejuni was prevalent (85 crows). Pulsed field gel electrophoresis showed broad diversity in the crow isolates of C. jejuni. However, 3 crow isolates and 2 broiler isolates showing similar banding patterns were assigned to different sequence types in multi-locus sequence typing. These results indicate that crows do not share Salmonella serovars with broilers, and harbor various genotypes of C. jejuni that differ from those of broiler flocks. Thus, our results indicate that crows are not a potential vector of these bacteria to broiler flocks in this region.
