Genomic epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni associated with asymptomatic pediatric infection in the Peruvian Amazon

• Published in: PLoS neglected tropical diseases Vol. 14; no. 8; p. e0008533
• Main Authors: Pascoe, Ben, Schiaffino, Francesca, Murray, Susan, Méric, Guillaume, Bayliss, Sion C, Hitchings, Matthew D, Mourkas, Evangelos, Calland, Jessica K, Burga, Rosa, Yori, Pablo Peñataro, Jolley, Keith A, Cooper, Kerry K, Parker, Craig T, Olortegui, Maribel Paredes, Kosek, Margaret N, Sheppard, Samuel K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 01.08.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Asymptomatic; Asymptomatic infection; Biochemistry; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Campylobacter; Campylobacteriosis; Children; Cohorts; Consumption; Countries; Datasets; Diagnosis; Diarrhea; Diseases; Divergence; Earth Sciences; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Epidemiology; Evolution; Food contamination & poisoning; Gastroenteritis; Genetic aspects; Genetic research; Genomes; Genomics; Genotypes; Health surveillance; Identification and classification; Income; Infections; Infectious diseases; Laboratories; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Microbiological strains; Parks & recreation areas; Pediatrics; Phylogeny; Prevalence studies (Epidemiology); Signs and symptoms; Social Sciences; Strains; Strains (organisms); Symptoms; Tropical diseases; Zoology; Peru; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Victoria Australia; Thailand; Australia; Virginia
• ISSN: 1935-2735; 1935-2727; 1935-2735
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008533

Campylobacter is the leading bacterial cause of gastroenteritis worldwide and its incidence is especially high in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Disease epidemiology in LMICs is different compared to high income countries like the USA or in Europe. Children in LMICs commonly have repeated and chronic infections even in the absence of symptoms, which can lead to deficits in early childhood development. In this study, we sequenced and characterized C. jejuni (n = 62) from a longitudinal cohort study of children under the age of 5 with and without diarrheal symptoms, and contextualized them within a global C. jejuni genome collection. Epidemiological differences in disease presentation were reflected in the genomes, specifically by the absence of some of the most common global disease-causing lineages. As in many other countries, poultry-associated strains were likely a major source of human infection but almost half of local disease cases (15 of 31) were attributable to genotypes that are rare outside of Peru. Asymptomatic infection was not limited to a single (or few) human adapted lineages but resulted from phylogenetically divergent strains suggesting an important role for host factors in the cryptic epidemiology of campylobacteriosis in LMICs.