Specific Detection of Enteropathogen Campylobacter jejuni in Food Using a Polymerase Chain Reaction

The use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was described using two sets of primers based on the ceuN gene (JEJ 1 and JEJ 2) which encodes a protein involved in siderophore transport and 16S rRNA gene (pA and pB) for the sensitive and specific detection of enteropathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Six oligonucleotides were utilized in an amplification experiment and PCR products of predicted sizes were generated from whole cells and boiled cell lysates at the same intensity. Two sets of the primer pairs, JEJ and pAB, were specific enough for all C. jejuni strains tested for the direct use of whole cells without DNA extraction or lysis steps. In the PCR using the pAB primer pair, the detection limit, as determined by the ethidium bromide staining of the amplification products on agarose gels, was at the level of $10^1$ bacteria cells or less in both the pure culture and artificially inoculated milk and chicken enrichment samples, whereas the detection limit with the JEJ primer pair was relatively low, i.e. $10^3$ cells or more in the same PCR samples. The PCR method using either a primer JEJ or pAB was both repeatable and specific for the detection of C. jejuni in food. This method is simply completed within 4 h.