Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli have commonly been considered harmless commensal inhabitants of the chicken gut; however, these Campylobacter spp. are known to be able to multiply in the gut and invade other tissues, negatively affecting host health and performance. In this study, fourteen Campylobacter spp. were isolated from chickens showing foci of necrosis on the liver surface resembling lesions observed in cases of avian vibrionic hepatitis/spotty liver disease. The whole genome sequences of the fourteen isolates were analysed and their virulomes compared to those of Campylobacter reference sequences, aiming to investigate the possible association between virulence genes and the observed pathological lesions. Nine C. jejuni and five C. coli were studied. These Campylobacter shared twelve virulence factors with other isolates originated from chicken livers and hosted a higher number of virulence-associated genes in comparison to the reference genomes, including genes encoding for factors involved in adherence to and invasion of the intestinal epithelial cells. Our findings seem to point out that these twelve common virulence-associated genes, together with the presence of a high number of virulence factors involved in adherence, invasion and motility, might be responsible for the extra-intestinal spread of our isolates and the colonization of parenchymatous tissues, possibly causing the pathological lesions observed.

空肠弯曲杆菌和大肠杆菌通常被认为是鸡肠道的无害共生菌。然而，这些弯曲杆菌属。已知能够在肠道中繁殖并侵入其他组织，从而对宿主的健康和表现产生负面影响。在这项研究中，十四个弯曲杆菌属。从鸡中分离出的肝脏表面有坏死灶，类似于在禽病毒性肝炎/斑点肝病病例中观察到的病变。分析了 14 个分离株的全基因组序列，并将它们的病毒组与弯曲杆菌的病毒组进行了比较参考序列，旨在研究毒力基因与观察到的病理病变之间可能的关联。研究了九个空肠弯曲杆菌和五个大肠杆菌。这些弯曲杆菌与来自鸡肝的其他分离株共享 12 种毒力因子，与参考基因组相比，拥有更多的毒力相关基因，包括编码与肠上皮细胞粘附和侵袭相关的因子的基因。我们的研究结果似乎指出，这 12 个常见的毒力相关基因，以及大量涉及粘附、侵袭和运动的毒力因子的存在，可能是我们分离株的肠外传播和细菌定植的原因。实质组织，可能引起观察到的病理性病变。