The aim of the work was to find out what is the prevalence and burden of Campylobacter sp. in the poultry exudates, what are the predominant species, how diverse they are, and can poultry exudates be considered as the essential carriers of campylobacters posing a health risk of campylobacteriosis in Poland. Broilers’ and turkeys’ exudates, collected directly from the bulk containers at the day of delivery were subjected to pre-enrichment and direct plate counting according to ISO 10272 (1995) with presumptive C.jejuni strains subjected to confirmatory genetic identification by the nested PCR and RAPD typing. The results indicated that over 90% of the exudates tested carried Campylobacter sp., with their number being significantly higher in broilers’ (103 to105 cfu mL-1) compared to turkeys’ (102 to 104 cfu mL-1) (P≤0.05), and essentially higher (P≤0.05) for the broiler parts’ “skin on” exudates. C.jejuni was the only species present in the turkeys’ and predominant in broilers’ parts’ exudates. RAPD-typing of the isolates revealed 14 distinct RAPD types with the majority of C. jejuni isolates considered to be closely related.
