Isolation and phylogenetic analysis of Arcobacter spp. in ground chicken meat and environmental water in Japan and Thailand

Prevalence of Arcobacter spp. in chicken meat samples and environmental water samples in Japan and Thailand was investigated. Arcobacter was isolated from 48% of chicken meat samples (20/41) and 23% of river water samples (4/17) from Japan, and 100 % of chicken meat samples (10/10) and 100 % of canal water samples (7/7) from Thailand. A. butzleri was among the species isolated from all positive samples. About 10% genetic diversity was seen in the rpoB-rpoC in Arcobacters, and phylogenetic trees were divided into two clusters. In both countries, the results suggested that chicken and environmental water were highly contaminated with a genetically diverse population of Arcobacter.