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International One Health Symposium 2025

Oct 13 – 15, 2025
Hotel Berlin, Berlin
Europe/Berlin timezone
All review results have been sent out on August 20th + September 2nd.

One Health 2025

Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. in wild boar and deer in Germany in hunting winter seasons 2018/19-2023/24

Oct 13, 2025, 6:38 PM
1m
Area C

Area C
Poster presentation One Health in Public Health Snacks & Poster Viewing I

Speaker

Dr Sarah Brüggemann-Schwarze (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety)

Description

Thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. are the leading cause of foodborne bacterial diarrhoea in Europe. Here we analysed caecal and faecal samples (n=672) from 564 freshly hunted wild animals for Campylobacter spp.. A mean prevalence of C. spp. of 77.4% in wild boar (Sus scrofa) and 9.4% in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was detected, while C. spp. were absent in red deer (Cervus elaphus, n=52) and fallow deer (Dama dama, n=36).
In wild boar, the most prominent identified species was C. lanienae (n=155), followed by C. coli (n=11), C. jejuni (n=3) and C. hyointestinalis (n=2). Among the 24 isolates from roe deer, 11 were identified as C. vicugnae and 8 C. lanienae, 2 C. hyointestinalis, 1 C. jejuni and 2 yet unknown C. spp. were found.
Whole genome sequencing and core genome (cgMLST) analysis, revealed that C. jejuni and C. coli from wild animals had a very broad phylogenetic distribution. Besides distinct lineages for wild animal isolates, some isolates were found in the same genetic lineages as those from food producing animals. A novel ad-hoc cgMLST scheme for C. lanienae was developed but no shared cluster was observed among wild and food producing animals. However, the number of C. lanienae isolates from the latter was limited.
In conclusion, wild boar and roe deer mainly carry distinct thermotolerant C. spp. that differ from isolates of food producing animals. However, rare exchange of C. spp. strains between wild and food animal populations may occur.

Keywords

Campylobacter spp.
zoonosis
wild animals
wild boar
deer
whole genome sequencing
cgMLST

Registration ID #23
Professional Status of the Speaker Postdoc
Junior Scientist Status No, I am not a Junior Scientist.

Authors

Dr Sarah Brüggemann-Schwarze (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety) Janine Heise (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety)

Co-authors

Christiane Buhler (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety) Marie-Theres Knüver (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety) Kaya Stollberg (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Unit Diagnostics, Pathogen Characterisation, Parasites in Food, Department Biological Safety) Susanne Diescher (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Unit Diagnostics, Pathogen Characterisation, Parasites in Food, Department Biological Safety) Martin Richter (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Unit Diagnostics, Pathogen Characterisation, Parasites in Food, Department Biological Safety) Dr Kerstin Stingl (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, National Reference Laboratory for Campylobacter, Unit Food Microbiology, Pathogen-Host Interactions, Department Biological Safety)

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External references

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