Biodiversity Dynamics of _Campylobacter_ Species in Chicken Tissues in Rural Households in Region Epirus, Greece  
[PERSON]  
1 Food Chemistry Lab, Section of Industrial and Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece 1  
[PERSON]  
2 Department of Agriculture, School of Agriculture, University of Ioannina, 47100 Arta, Greece 23 Laboratory of Animal Husbandry and Nutrition, Department of Agriculture, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece 3  
[PERSON]  
2 Department of Agriculture, School of Agriculture, University of Ioannina, 47100 Arta, Greece 24 University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece 4  
[PERSON]  
1 Food Chemistry Lab, Section of Industrial and Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece 1  
[PERSON]  
1 Food Chemistry Lab, Section of Industrial and Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece 1  
Footnote 1: email: {mypi.com/journals/applsci/2020/2  
species such as Guillain-Barre syndrome (one-third of the cases are due to C. _jejuni_) and Miller-Fisher syndrome are of autoimmune origin [9; 10]. _C. jejuni_ is the prime concern for public health, being responsible for 90% of the campylobacteriosis cases encountered internationally [11; 12]. Chicken meat consumption when raw or undercooked is the most frequent source of foodborne disease in humans [13; 14]. From 2010 to 2017, there have been 236 foodborne _Campylobacter_ outbreaks reported in the USA [15]. Campylobacteriosis is the most accounted gastrointestinal illness in the EU/EEA. In 2017, 250,161 cases of campylobacteriosis were checked in the 29 EU/EEA countries, while the overall EU/EEA report rate was 44.4 cases per 100.000 population [16].  
_C. jejuni_ and _C. coli_ are perhaps the most investigated _Campylobacter_ species due to their impact on public health, but other species of this genus are also detrimental to human health causing serious and--occasionally--life-threatening disease. To mention a few, _C. concisus_ has been linked to cases of enterocolitis, periodontal disease, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [17], _C. fetus_ has been described as the causative agent of cervical osteomyelitis [18], and bacteremia [19], while _C. upsaliensis_ and _C. ureolytica_ have been isolated from patients undergoing periodontitis, IBD, and gastroenteritis [20]. The list is much longer of course and still growing, raising alarm with respect to the genus Campylobacter.  
Most of the research concerning _Campylobacter_ in poultry in Greece and internationally is limited to industrial broilers and poultry slaughterhouses and retail establishments. EU legislation (Greek law complies) by Regulation 1495/2017 states that sampling once per week is obligatory in slaughterhouses and other establishments and that samples should be analyzed according to EN ISO 10272-2. This kind of priority is quite understandable since industrial poultry meat feeds most of the urban population worldwide and to a degree, it is expected that from this research the backyard household chicken has been excluded. Yet this subject is equally important from the perspective of public health, since practically all rural populations breed and consume backyard chicken meat.  
The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of the species of the _Campylobacter_ genus in rural households' chicken and its possible correlation to various epidemiological factors.