[Molecular investigation of relatedness of Campylobacter coli isolated from child with campylobacteriosis and healthy, household dog].

Thermotolerant species of Campylobacter (mainly C. jejuni and C. coli) are among the most frequently isolated bacterial agents of gastroenteritis in many developed countries. C. coli is less prevalent than C. jejuni. The main reservoir of C. coli is swine, however this pathogen may also be found in poultry, cattle and pets. Genotypic methods have successfully been applied to the subtyping of Campylobacter species in epidemiological investigation. In the present study we report a case of isolation of C. coli from 5-month old child and 2-year old heathy dog (Yorkshire Terrier). C. coli isolates were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with SmaI and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR) for establishing genetic relationships of the strains. The molecular fingerprints of these isolates were compared with the patterns of four C. coli epidemiologically unrelated isolates obtained from humans with diarrhea from the same region. The child and the dog shared the same strain, which were indistinguishable by PFGE and ERIC-PCR. This may argue for the transmission of C. coli between household dog and human. Our results may also support previous findings that direct contact with infected pets may play an important role in the development of campylobacteriosis in humans.