The Journal of

Introduction:Food-borne diseases are the widespread problems worldwide. Campylobacter species are the most important pathogens causing gastroenteritis which is generally transmitted through the food with animal origin. The aim of this study was to identify the Campylobacter spp. in diarrheal outbreaks in food-borne diseases at country level.

Methods:This cross-sectional study carried out in spring and summer, 2015. In total, 305 swabs from diarrheal stool samples of 102 food-borne outbreaks were collected in various provinces of Iran. All samples were examined for the presence and growth of Campylobacter spp. The descriptive analysis, chi-square test and SPSS v.21 software were used for the analysis of results.

Results:From the total of 102 foodborne outbreaks, Zanjan Province with 24 outbreaks (24.5%) and Yazd Province with 70 samples of diarrhea (23%) included the most reported cases. Out of 305 tested samples, 119 (39%) were from food, 35 (11.5%) from water and 151 (41.5%) from unknown sources (p <0.001).  Two outbreaks in Yazd Province including three stool samples contained Campylobacter coli. Typical symptoms included diarrhea (30.9%), abdominal cramps (68.5%), fever (31.8%), headache (42.3%), diarrhea (5.2%), nausea (62.3%) and vomiting (64.9%).

Conclusion:Results from this study showed that C. coli was responsible for diarrhea rather than C. jejuni.