Genomic Diversity of Campylobacter lari Group Isolates from Europe and Australia in a One Health Context
Michèle Gourmelon, Amine M. Boukerb, Nesrine Nabi, Sangeeta Banerji, Katrine Joensen, Joëlle Serghine, Alexandre Cormier, Françis Mégraud, Philippe Lehours, Thomas Alter, Danielle J. Ingle, Martyn Kirk, Eva Møller Nielsen
Abstract
Currently, relatedness between bacterial isolates impacting human health is easily monitored by molecular typing methods. These approaches rely on discrete loci or whole-genome sequence (WGS) analyses. Campylobacter lari is an emergent human pathogen isolated from diverse ecological niches, including fecal material from humans and animals, aquatic environments, and seafood. The presence of C. lari in such diverse sources underlines the importance of adopting an integrated One Health approach in studying C. lari population structure for conducting epidemiological risk assessment. This retrospective study presents a comparative genomics analysis of C. lari isolates retrieved from two different continents (Europe and Australia) and from different sources (human, domestic animals, waterbirds, food, and environment). It was designed to improve knowledge regarding C. lari ecology and pathogenicity, important for developing effective surveillance and disease prevention strategies.