Serogroups of thermophilic campylobacters from humans and from non-human sources, Israel 1982-1985.

The distribution of serogroups of thermophilic campylobacters isolated in Israel from human patients (2421 isolates), chicken (942), turkeys (158), cattle (398), wild birds (234) and other sources, was studied. Among the human isolates, 74 ROG-serogroups were identified. The six most commonly isolated of these (1, 18; 11; 12; 8,23; 4 and 5,39) were found frequently in chickens. Only four common serogroups in man were also common in cattle, three in turkeys and two in wild birds. Two common serogroups in man (1,18 and 5,39) were prevalent all over the country, while others were regionally distributed. When the prevalence of different serogroups in Israel was compared to that in Canada, some groups were common to both countries and others were common in only one or the other. Campylobacter jejuni accounted for 86.7% to 92.1% of the isolates from man, chickens, turkeys, cattle and most of the wild birds. C. coli was found in 34.4% of isolates from cattle egrets and in 76.5% of those from pigs.