Epidemiologic application of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to an outbreak of Campylobacter jejuni in an Austrian youth centre

We report the first documented Campylobacter jejuni outbreak in an Austrian youth centre. Sixty-four children were involved of which 38 showed classical signs of campylobacter gastroenteritis. Since unpasteurized milk distributed by a local dairy was suspected to be the source of infection, stool samples were collected from 20 cows providing the milk. Five of the cows tested positive for C. jejuni. These isolates together with 37 clinical samples were compared by pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The PFGE patterns, using the restriction endonucleases SmaI and SalI, were identical for the human and bovine isolates. This finding confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the consumption of unpasteurized milk contaminated with C. jejuni.