Prevalence, genotyping and risk factors of thermophilic Campylobacter spreading in organic turkey farms in Germany

Table 1 Farm description, environmental parameters, water supply sources and system, prevalence and genotyping of Campylobacter spp. isolated from organic turkey flocks

	Flock I	Flock II	Flock III	Flock IV	Flock V
Total number of birds/flock	1003	2000	1400	1100	1500
Age of birds (weeks)	8	8	4	8	6
Turkey-line	Kelly BBB	B.U.T. 6	B.U.T. 6	Kelly BBB	B.U.T. 6
Water supply type	Tap water	Tap water	Well water	Tap water	Tap water
Type of drinkers	Cups + pendulous	Cups	Cups + drinking trough	Pendulous	Cups
Number of examined cloacal swabs	30	30	30	30	30
No. of positive cloacal swabs	30	27	30^a	30^a	30
Flock prevalence (%)	100	90	100	100	100
No. of isolated C. jejuni	8	19	5	17	20
No. of isolated C. coli	22	8	30	19	10
Prevalence of C. jejuni (%)	26.67	70.37	14.29	47.22	66.67
Prevalence of C. coli (%)	73.33	29.63	85.71	52.78	33.33
No. of positive water samples	1 (C. coli)	2 (C. jejuni)	0	0	0
No. of positive beetles sample	0	3 (C. coli)	0	0	0
No. of C. jejuni genotypes	3	4	1	2	5
No. of C. coli genotypes	2	1	2	4	4
Temperature (°C)	15.8	23.1	21.30	21.80	15.4
Relative humidity (RH in %)	63.6	64.2	74.8	58.3	56.6
Ammonia (ppm)	1	14	22	1	0
CO₂ (ppm)	500	1400	800	350	400

^aFrom the same cloacal swabs both C. coli as well as C. jejuni were isolated in 5 swabs of farm III and 8 swabs of farm IV

ISSN: 1757-4749