Discrimination between Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli Using a Macrolide and Quinolone Line Probe Assay (MQ-LiPA)

Abstract

Two hundred and forty nine Campylobacter isolates were discriminated between C. jejuni and C. coli by the hippurate hydrolysis test, three PCR methods using C. jejuni or C. coli specific primer sets, and the macrolide and quinolone line probe assay (MQ-LiPA). The results among the five methods were in agreement for all strains except for six strains, which were specified as C. coli by the hippurate hydrolysis test but as C. jejuni by the other methods. The data of 16S rDNA sequences in two out of these six strains, confirmed the strains were C. jejuni. These results suggest that MQ-LiPA is an effective method and can replace the hippurate hydrolysis test as other PCR methods.