Same-day subtyping of Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli isolates by use of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification-binary typing.

Campylobacteriosis is the most commonly reported form of human bacterial gastroenteritis in the world. Sound identification of infectious sources requires subtyping, but the most widely used methods have turnaround times measured in days and require specialist equipment and skills. A multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification-binary typing (MBiT) assay was developed for subtyping Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. It was tested on 245 isolates, including recent isolates from Belgium and New Zealand, and compared to multilocus sequence typing (MLST). When used in an outbreak setting, MBiT identified the predominant genotype and possible additional cases days before pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results were available. MBiT was more discriminatory than MLST and, being a single assay with results produced within 6 h, was more rapid and cost-effective than both MLST and PFGE. In addition, MBiT requires only basic molecular biology equipment and skills.