5. Conclusion
This study found that sheep pose a greater risk than
goats for C. jejuni and Salmonella contamination on cograzing
small ruminant farms. Although both pathogens
can be found in the feces of small ruminants and wild
birds, C. jejuni is likely to be more prevalent than Salmonella
at small ruminant farms. Strains of C. Jejuni and
Salmonella isolated from pastured animals show diverse
PFGE band patterns and specificity in location. Isolated
C. jejuni strains from wild-living birds exhibit diverse PFGE
patterns, but are not location specific. Matching C. jejuni
PFGE profiles obtained from two European Starlings
caught at MD and one Rock Dove caught at VA shows
the potential of inter-transmission and/or shared contamination
sources of C. jejuni among avian species in the MidAtlantic
region. However, no direct evidence of the linkage
between small ruminants and wild-living birds for transmitting
C. jejuni or Salmonella was found.