Campylobacter sp is a microaerophilic, thermotolerating Gram negative bacterium, known to be one of the main causes of food-borne human infections. Among the foods that carry these microorganisms, the chicken is outstanding. In Brazil, a large chicken exporting country, few researches are conducted about their prevalence in breeder hens and the transmission through eggs. The aim of this research was to verify the presence of Campylobacter sp in the shells and within the eggs from positive cloacal swab breeder hens. Microbiological analyses were made on cloacal swabs of 140 weighed breeder hens. The positive breeder hens were set aside and in a total of 244 of their eggs, Campylobacter sp was present in macerated shells and yolk contents during 7 weeks. Out of the 140 researched breeder hens, 25 (17.8%) were positive from cloacal swabs, however the eggs were not positive. The physiological characteristics of the birds, their eggs and Campylobacter sp favor the bacterium entering and surviving in the eggs, but in this study, no positive result was found in macerated shells or in the yolks, indicating that vertical transmission is probably an unusual event.
Campylobacter; eggs; chicken; vertical transmission; epidemiology