The Importance in Controlling Campylobacter

Campylobacter is being recognised as one of the important causes of food poisoning in the UK, and its prevalence is directly related with the poultry supply chain. A report produced by the Food Standard Agency (The Second Infectious Intestinal Disease Study-Project B18021 (2014)) described a GP presentation study where stools were collected from all patients complaining of gastrointestinal problems which identified 18 different microorganisms (bacteria, protozoa and viruses) using culturing and molecular (PCR and ELISA) techniques.  Campylobacter and Norovirus were found to be most commonly occurring effecting 13% and 12.4% of patients, respectively. The incidence of Campylobacter surpassed the occurrence of other bacterial infections caused by Clostridium difficule (1.4%), Salmonella (0.8%) and Escherichia coli (1.4%).  However, in 48.6% cases of reported gastrointestinal problems revealed that no pathogen could be identified. 

 

Figure 1   The distribution of gastrointestinal cases which have been identified to known microorganisms (unknown pathogens were excluded).  Those marked in red are bacteria, those in green are protozoa and those in blue are viruses.  Data obtained from "The Second Infectious Intestinal Disease Study-Project B18021 (2014)".

Figure 2 The distribution of people affected with known pathogens that required hospitalization after outbreaks in the UK.

However, the severity of Campylobacter is relatively minor in comparison to other bacterial diseases such as E. coli 0157 and Salmonella. A higher proportion of people affected with E. coli 0157 and Salmonella will require hospitalization compared with those affected by Campylobacter.  Consequently, the impact of Campylobacter has been underestimated considering that a larger proportion of people are affected by this bacterium.  Mathematical modelling based on extrapolations from infections determined within small locations have predicted that 25% of the population suffers gastrointestinal problems each year and 50% of these people require work leave.  It is estimated that the economic impact is £1.5 billion in England and Wales annually.