Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of bacterial diarrhoea worldwide. The objective of this study was to examine the association between C. jejuni capsule types and clinical signs and symptoms of diarrhoeal disease in a well-defined birth cohort in Peru. Children were enrolled in the study at birth and followed until 2 years of age as part of the Malnutrition and Enteric Infections birth cohort. Associations between capsule type and clinical outcomes were assessed using the Pearson's χ2 and the Kruskal-Wallis test statistics. A total of 318 C. jejuni samples (30% from symptomatic cases) were included in this analysis. There were 22 different C. jejuni capsule types identified with five accounting for 49.1% of all isolates. The most common capsule types among the total number of isolates were HS4 complex (n = 52, 14.8%), HS5/31 complex (n = 42, 11.9%), HS15 (n = 29, 8.2%), HS2 (n = 26, 7.4%) and HS10 (n = 24, 6.8%). These five capsule types accounted for the majority of C. jejuni infections; however, there was no significant difference in prevalence between symptomatic and asymptomatic infection (all p > 0.05). The majority of isolates (n = 291, 82.7%) were predicted to express a heptose-containing capsule. The predicted presence of methyl phosphoramidate, heptose or deoxyheptose on the capsule was common.
Keywords: Campylobacter jejuni; capsule types; multiplex PCR; paediatric enteric disease; vaccine development.