It's also just one of numerous emerging pathogens that reinforce the need for strict and constant food-safety standards and compliance by every employee. Cases generally are sporadic rather than clustered in outbreaks, making it difficult to trace a source of contamination. Complicating matters is the absence of a simple laboratory test to detect it in food. But perhaps most disturbing is Campylobacter's apparently growing resistance to antibiotics. Health officials recently reported that levels of drug-resistant strains of this bacteria have risen dramatically since 1995.
Scientists suspect the reason is the use of certain antibiotics to control infections in chickens.
Campylobacter is hardly the only foodborne pathogen to have emerged in recent years, notes a recent CDC report. Strains of cyclospora, Listeria and salmonella have followed a similar script.