Designing a rapid and accurate method for transportation and culture of the Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli-fastidious bacteria in the children with bacterial gastrointestinal symptoms

Campylobacter spp. is the major cause of bacterial gastroenteritis, called campylobacteriosis, in the worldwide. Post-infectious complications of this infection are reactive arthritis and Guillain–Barré syndrome. Despite the importance of this infection, the isolation of fastidiousbacteria cannot be performed in most clinical laboratories. The aim this study was to design an alternative transport medium with mCCDA and evaluation the bacteria survival time into this medium, optimization of culture conditions of bacteria and then performance of direct duplex-PCR on colonies and stool samples. Finally, the results of the PCR and culture were compared.
Fifty eight children suspected to campylobacteriosis were enrolled in this study. Fecal specimens were inoculated in depth inside the altered transport medium with mCCDA and then sent to laboratory. The specimens from transport media were cultured on two media of mCCDA&brucella agar daily and up to 7 days. Each plate was evaluated for bacterial growth up to 72 hours. The duplex-PCR on colonies and stool were carried out directly.
Total of isolated bacteria in this study was 9 cases (16%). The colonies were visible on the media after 48 to 72 h. The duplex-PCR assay on colonies detected 8 isolates of C. jejuni and 1 isolate C. coli. The results of the direct duplex-PCR on fecal specimens and cultures were the same.
The results indicate that the presented method in this study with sensitivity equal to the PCR is useful for isolation of Campylobacter spp. It seems that using the changed transport medium and optimization of bacterial culture conditions will be isolated these fastidiousbacteria better than basic transport media.