Environmental Sources of Campylobacter Infections in Luxembourg

Coordinating Institution: Laboratoire National de Santé
Contracting Partner(s): CRP Gabriel Lippmann
From: 01/03/2010
To: 28/02/2013
Budget: 737,000.00€
Contact(s): Ragimbeau Catherine

Summary:

Campylobacter infections are a major public health concern and in the past few years, have emerged as a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in Luxembourg as well as in the other EU Member States. Most cases are sporadic and the source of contamination is rarely known. Our previous FNR-funded project EPIFOOD suggested that while the primary route of transmission was still food-borne, environmental routes might be more important than previously thought. In particular, for young children, representing a the large fraction of human cases, the transmission routes are also likely to be environmental rather than food-borne because of with their limited diets and their high rate of hand-mouth behavior. In Luxembourg, 30 % of the reported cases result from children under 10 year-old. By using case-control methodology, water-related factors have been significantly associated with the illness in infants. The objective of our project is to investigate the likely contribution of various environmental reservoirs and vehicles to human campylobacteriosis in Luxembourg. A first major focus will be on detecting and culturing Campylobacter in untreated surface water such as private wells, recreational surface waters, fishing areas and streams. In order to perform a sampling that is representative of the studied water bodies, the ultrafiltration/ultracentrifugation protocol successfully developed in the FNR-funded project KAWA will be applied to concentrate Campylobacter from volumes higher than a cubic meter. As a way to optimize the recovery of bacteria, we would propose to assess the recently described method of protozoan vectors to enhance the prospects of culturing these fastidious bacteria from aquatic environments. A second major focus will be put on investigating the role of house flies by setting up a sampling framework in different socio-geographic areas where contamination is likely to occur including farms, garbage tips. Finally, a third focus will be to further document risk factors of campylobacteriosis in Luxembourg with a web- and paper-based survey to collect important epidemiological data from patients including recent history of travel, contact with pets or farms animals and other environmental exposure. State of the art genotyping methods will be implemented, partly by technological transfer of the expertise gained from the results of the previously FNR-funded EPIFOOD project. The HypoCamp project seeks to build upon the expertise gained during previous FNR-funded projects KAWA & EPIFOOD combining environmental microbiology and epidemiology.