Campylobacter spp. are major causes of foodborne illness globally, and are mostly transmitted through the consumption and handling of poultry. Campylobacter infections have widely variable outcomes, ranging from mild enteritis to severe illness, which are attributed to host interactions and the virulence of the infecting strain. In this study, in order to investigate the effect of host stress on the growth and pathogenicity of C. jejuni, three strains associated with human infection and two strains from broilers were subject to growth, motility, adhesion and invasion assays, in response to exposure to catecholamines; epinephrine, norepinephrine and the glucocorticoid neuroendocrine hormones corticosterone, cortisol and cortisone which are associated with stress in humans and broilers. Catecholamines resulted in significantly increased growth, adhesion and invasion of Caco-2 cells. Corticosterone promoted growth in one of five strains, and cortisone resulted in a significant increase in motility in two out of five strains, while no significant differences were observed with the addition of cortisol. It was concluded that stress-associated hormones, especially catecholamines, may promote growth and virulence in Campylobacter.
Keywords: Campylobacter; broiler; catecholamines; glucocorticoids; host stress; pathogenicity; virulence.