Occurrence and antibiotici susceptibility of Helicobacter pullorum from turkeys intensively reared in northern italy

There is no data in literature regarding Helicobacter pullorum occurrence in Turkey, therefore from September to December 2006, caecal contents from 55 animals coming from 11 different intensive farms (5.samples/farm) were collected at the slaughterhouse. Gramnegative curved rod bacteria, isolated by a modified Steele-McDermott membrane filter method, were identified as H. pullorum using two different Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assays based on 16S rRNA and on gyrA gene. One isolate from each farm was randomly selected and subjected to phenotypic characterisation by biochemical methods and 1D SDS-PAGE analysis of whole cell proteins, and to Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) for seven different antibiotics by agar dilution method. According to the PCRs results, 42 (76.4%) out of 55 animals examined were positive for H. pullorum and 100% of farms resulted infected. The 1D SDS-PAGE whole protein profile analysis showed a high similarity among 11 isolates tested and the type strain of H. pullorum. A monomodal distribution for the MIC values was found for ampicillin (2–32 lg/ml), chloramphenicol (4–32 lg/ml), gentamicin (0.25–0.5 lg/ml) and nalidixic acid (8–128 lg/ml), while a bimodal trend was observed for erythromycin (MICs range 2–8 lg/ml and ‡ 256 lg/ml), ciprofloxacin (0.25–0.5 lg/ml and 16–128 lg/ml) and tetracycline (1–4 lg/ml and 128 ‡ 256 lg/ml) indicating a probable acquired resistance. This is the first report of isolation and characterisation of H. pullorum from Turkey. The occurrence and antibiotic susceptibility of H. pullorum observed in turkeys resulted similar to previous descriptions of this microorganism in broiler chickens and laying hens in Italy. The detection of a high number of colonies phenotypically similar to H. pullorum , in the first isolation plates, suggests that this micro-organism, when present, colonizes the caecum of Turkey at a high concentration.