Investigation of Campylobacter jejuni in microbiota of Galerida cristata, trapped in Southeast of Iran, Sistan

As a wild groundforaging bird, crested lark (Galerida cristata) is widely distributed in the Sistan area, located in the North of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Iran. Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is known as a cause of acute diarrheal and GuillainBarré syndrome in humans and can use the same wild birds as a carrier. The present study was aimed to determine if the target wild bird species can be regarded as a medium to carry C. jejuni or not. A total of 100 individual birds were trapped alive, and cloacal swab samples were collected from each animal. By amplifying Hyp and hip genes, we screened the presence of C. jejuni in the sampled specimens. The results indicated that generating an amplicon of 500 bp and 750 bp from control strain for Hyp and hip genes, but in all examined samples, no C. jejuni was detected. As a first microbiological investigation on a crested lark, our finding indicates that it likely plays no role in the epidemiology of infections caused by C. jejuni. Vast studies, with a variety of wild birds, and different geographical areas are proposed.