Campylobacter coli in Organic and Conventional Pig Production in France and Sweden: Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter coli in conventional and organic pigs from France and Sweden. Fecal or colon samples were collected at farms or at slaughterhouses and cultured for Campylobacter. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, and gentamicin were determined by microdilution for a total of 263 French strains from 114 pigs from 50 different farms and 82 Swedish strains from 144 pigs from 54 different farms. Erythromycin resistant isolates were examined for presence of the emerging rRNA methylase erm(B) gene. The study showed that within the colon samples obtained in each country there was no significant difference in prevalence of Campylobacter between pigs in organic and conventional productions [France: conventional: 43/58 (74%); organic: 43/56 (77%) and Sweden: conventional: 24/36 (67%); organic: 20/36 (56%)]. In France, but not in Sweden, significant differences of percentages of resistant isolates were associated with production type (tetracycline, erythromycin) and the number of resistances was significantly higher for isolates from conventional pigs. In Sweden, the number of resistances of fecal isolates was significantly higher compared to colon isolates. The erm(B) gene was not detected in the 87 erythromycin resistant strains tested

Frequency of resistance (percent) to selected antibiotics in <i>Escherichia coli</i> from slaughter pigs in Denmark, France, Italy and Sweden and univariable association between conventional (Con) vs. organic (Org) herds.

<p>Univariate odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence interval for OR (95% CI) and p-values for the association. n = number of isolates, nd = not done. Interpretive criteria for MICs (ECOFF) separating wild-type from non-wild type isolates are indicated (mg/L).</p

Composition of fecal microbiota of conventional and organic pigs in four countries at family level.

<p>Each color represents a particular bacterial family and the following numbers refer to the defined color codes. 1 –<i>Veillonellaceae</i>, 2—unclassified <i>Clostridiales</i>, 3—unclassified <i>Bacteroidales</i>, 4 –<i>Streptococcaceae</i>, 5 –<i>Ruminococcaceae</i>, 6 –<i>Moraxellaceae</i>, 7 –<i>Rikenellaceae</i>, 8 –<i>Prevotellaceae</i>, 9 –<i>Porphyromonadaceae</i>, 10 –<i>Peptostreptococcaceae</i>, 11 –<i>Lachnospiraceae</i>, 12 –<i>Hydrogenophylaceae</i>, 13 –<i>Lactobacillaceae</i>, 14 –<i>Erysipelotrichaceae</i>, 15—<i>Clostridiaceae</i> incertae sedis, 16 –<i>Clostridiaceae</i>, 17 –<i>Acidaminococcaceae</i>. IT–Italy, FR–France, DNK–Denmark, SWE–Sweden. Org–samples from organic farms, Con–samples from conventional farms. Sample 1–5 for each country and production system represent samples taken from 5 randomly selected pigs. The sixth samples (“P”) always represent pooled samples from particular country and production system.</p