Prevalence of Campylobacter Jejuni and Coli in Sheep Carcasses by Using Cultural and PCR Methods

Background: campylobacter species are common bacterial pathogens causing gastroenteritis in humans worldwide. materials and methods: a total of 148 randomly sheep carcasses were sampled by surface section of neck meat taken immediately after slaughter analyzed using microbiological examinations.results: campylobacter spp. was isolated from 10.13% meat cultures samples examined. among these 80% sample were c. jejuni and 20% sample were c. coli. using pcr assays, the number of positive campylobacters increased to 11.48%. of these positive samples, 82.35% were c. jejuni and 17.65% were c. coli. significantly higher prevalence rates of campylobacter spp. (p < 0.05) were found in the meat samples taken in summer (47.05%).conclusion: the pcr is a reliable and sensitive method which can be used as a diagnostic technique for the detection of campylobacter in lamb samples.