The Transmission of Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. to People Living or Working on Dairy Farms in New Zealand

• Published in: Zoonoses and public health Vol. 55; no. 7; pp. 352 - 360
• Main Authors: Gilpin, B. J., Scholes, P., Robson, B., Savill, M. G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2008
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Bacteria; Campylobacter; Campylobacter - isolation & purification; Campylobacter Infections - epidemiology; Campylobacter Infections - transmission; Campylobacter Infections - veterinary; Cattle; Child; Child, Preschool; Colony Count, Microbial; Dairy farms; Dairying - methods; Dairying - standards; Disease Reservoirs - veterinary; Disease transmission; Environmental Microbiology; Feces - microbiology; Female; Humans; Hygiene; Infant; Infectious diseases; Male; molecular epidemiology; New Zealand - epidemiology; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; PFGE; Risk Assessment; Risk factors; Zoonoses; New Zealand
• ISSN: 1863-1959; 1863-2378
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2008.01142.x

Summary
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of campylobacteriosis in the developed world with an incidence rate of 383.5 cases per 100 000 in 2006. Dairy farming has been suggested as a potential source of campylobacteriosis. To explore this connection, seven farm investigations were undertaken at dairy farms on which a campylobacteriosis case had been notified. Campylobacter spp. were isolated from a range of sources on the farm (including 66% of bovine faecal samples) and genotypes compared with that of the clinical isolate of the index case. In depth, epidemiological questionnaires were also administered to determine exposure risks from a wide range of possible sources. Contact with dairy cow faeces was the most likely source of infection in four of the seven cases investigated, and occurred exclusively in new farm workers and children. In one of the cases investigated, infection was likely to have been acquired from non‐dairy related sources, and in two cases the source could not be determined. The relative risk of dairy farm worker being notified with campylobacteriosis was estimated to be 1.88 (95% confidence interval = 1.6–2.2).