Objective
Campylobacters (C. jejuni and C. coli) are the most common reported cause of acute bacterial enteritis in many European countries. The estimated cost of this disease may be as high as 425 million ECU per annum to the EU. The disease is primarily foodbourne and the major source is believed to be the consumption and handling of undercooked poultry meat. Throughout Europe the majority of poultry flocks are contaminated with this pathogen and the production of Campylobacter-free poultry is now considered a high priority in many countries. Intervention strategies to prevent poultry infection at the farm level are actively being developed but are hindered by the poor availability of universally recognised and reproducible methods to subtype the organisms. The recent development of molecular typing techniques, based on DNA sequences, provides an opportunity for inter-laboratory collaboration throughout Europe to catalogue the range of Campylobacter types causing disease in humans and contamination in animals and the environment, enable identification of sources and routes of transmission, track longitudinal and geographical trends in Campylobacter populations and potentially distinguish pathogenic from non-pathogenic isolates.
Unfortunately there are currently significant variations in the technologies utilised by the specialist laboratories which is preventing the establishment of global databases. At a recent meeting of COST 97, in Sweden (April 1997), and the 9th International Campylobacter Workshop in Cape Town (September 1997) a need was highlighted for the standardisation and harmonisation of molecular subtyping techniques for Campylobacters.
The CAMPYNET project brings together a network of 24 participants (approximately 30 laboratories) from 12 European countries. The project primarily aims to collect, store and distribute a reference set of 100 fully-characterised campylobacter strains from veterinary and clinical sources. In Phase 1 of the project this strain set will be used by specialist laboratories to establish recommended procedures and interpretative criteria for three major molecular subtyping technologies; pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), fla typing (PCR/RFLP) and AFLP. In Phase 2 of the project non-specialist laboratories will be instructed in the use of the technologies and apply these skills to the reference strain set. The network has a management committee of five who will oversee the project and lead 6 subgroups undertaking; the provision and distribution of reference strains, standardisation of pulsed field electrophoresis, standardisation of fla typing, standardisation of AFEP and the co-ordination of information technology and new and complementary methods.
Information regarding the reproducibility and robustness of the technologies will be gathered and the technologies transferred to industrial partners through participants and individual contacts within the poultry industry. CAMPYNET also aims to provide a forum for European and international communication by convening yearly meetings of the network, and disseminating accrued information via a newsletter and a home page on the internet. The criteria and procedures established during this project will, in the future, provide the information base to determined sources and routes of transmission and thereby enable the reduction, or elimination, of campylobacters within the food chain.
campylobacters, foodborne disease, enteritis, poultry, molecular typing.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternet
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistryelectrophoresis
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
THN - Thematic network contractsCoordinator
KT15 3NB Weybridge
United Kingdom