ABSTRACT
Spiral campylobacter-like organisms were rst observed microscopically from the stool of children by Escherich in 1886. Between 1909 and 1944, there was a growing number of reports of similar “vibrio-like” organisms isolated from bovine and ovine sources, but they were not isolated from humans until 1938, in association with a milk-borne outbreak of gastroenteritis where blood cultures were positive for organisms resembling “Vibrio jejuni.”14 The microaerobic vibrios were assigned to the new genus Campylobacter in 1963,79 and included just two species: Campylobacter fetus and Campylobacter bubulus (now Campylobacter sputorum). Campylobacters were rst successfully isolated from stool in the late 1960s using a ltration technique.14 Later, the development of selective media brought the routine isolation of Campylobacter into the clinical microbiology setting and Campylobacter spp. rapidly became recognized as a common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis. The taxonomic structure of Campylobacter has changed substantially since its inception in 1963, rst with a comprehensive study of the taxonomy of the genus in 1973.86 By the late 1980s there was a rapid increase in classication at the species level, and 14 species had been described (see review by Penner68).
