Laboratory detection and surveillance of Campylobacter jejuni infection

Objective To understand the status quo of Campylobacter jejuni infection in China. Methods Stool samples collected from diarrheal patients were used to conduct C. jejuni detection and surveillance for 8 months. Results A total of 278 stool samples were collected from a hospital in Beijing from April to November 2013, and 16 were C. jejuni positive by direct medium culture (6, 2.2%), enrichment culture (2, 0.7%) and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (14, 5.0%). The differences in detection rates with different methods were statistical significant (2= 36.425, P=0.039). Conclusion The detection rate of C. jejuni in this study was significantly lower than that in the latest report in China. Compared with real-time PCR, the sensitivity of the culture-based detection was low, but the isolates obtained from culture-based detection will benefit the further pathogenesis analysis.