Epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. in animals in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review

Introduction: Low sanitary conditions characterize the rural and urban households in Sub-Saharan African region. Those environmental conditions propitiate the transmission of bacterial infections between animals and humans. Campylobacter spp. is a zoonotic bacterium and cause of human gastroenteritis worldwide, whose main symptom is diarrhea. It is normally found in the digestive tract of many farm animals as a commensal but some species cause diseases in animals. It is important to understand the occurrence of these bacteria in animals, as they may also play a role in transmission to humans. The main objective of this review was to describe the prevalence of Campylobacter in animals in Sub-Saharan Africa. We also report findings on antibiotic resistance. Methods: We followed PRISMA guidelines to find studies about occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in animals in all countries from Sub-Saharan Africa. PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, African Index Medicus, African Journals Online, Google Scholar and Science Direct were searched for studies published between 2000 and 2019. Results: We found 70 studies that described occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in animals in 18 out of 53 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli were the predominant species isolated. The majority of studies were found in Western Africa. Middle Africa had the lowest amount of data. Most records presented data from Nigeria (n = 25), South Africa (n = 14) and Tanzania (n = 11). Cattle and chickens appear to be important hosts and may be playing an important role in transmitting to humans. Most Campylobacter isolates were resistant to erythromycin (44%), ampicillin (39%), tetracycline (33%), nalidixic acid (31%) and ciprofloxacin (30%). Conclusion: Several studies about Campylobacter spp. in animals have been published in the last 19 years but information on the epidemiology of campylobacteriosis is scarce in most Sub-Saharan African countries. Antibiotic resistance is an increasing concern in many countries. Measures should be taken to prevent infection by this pathogen in the region and to control antibiotic resistance.