ELSEVIER Small Ruminant Research 15 (1994) 97-100 Small Ruminant Research Technical Note Prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in clinically normal goats kept under various management systems in urban Tanzania S.F.H. Jiwa*, R.R. Kazwala, E. Namahungu Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of VeterinaryMedicine, Sokoine Universityof Agriculture, P.O. Box 3086, Morogoro, Tanzania Accepted 25 December 1993 Abstract Faecal samples from 168 goats belonging to eight urban establishments and representing three commonly encountered management systems were screened for Campylobacter spp. Goats which were kept isolated from other farm animals with or without good management systems were negative for Campylobacter spp., although in one of these units 2/9 chickens were consistently positive for C. coli. However, 3 out of 20 goats confined in an enclosed area but in contact with C. coli positive pigs (3/10) and chickens (2/8) were infected with C. coli. Furthermore, 24 milk samples tested on three different occasions were negative. This study indicates that goats are not natural hosts of C. coli or C. jejuni and that pigs and poultry act as a source of infection. Keywords: Campylobacter; Goat; Poultry pig contact 1. Introduction Tanzania is estimated to have an indigenous goat population of around 8 million and most are owned by pastoralists (FAO, 1992). For the past two decades, goats have become increasingly popular in urban and semi-urban areas as a supply for protein requirements. In addition, small ruminants provide a subsidiary source of income and a safeguard against crop failures and crop prices (Das and Sendalo, 1991; Seyoum, 1992). With growing human population and concom- itant pressure on traditional grazing lands, small rumi- nant production in urban and semi-urban areas is set to increase. Tanzanian meat goats are hardy animals requiring fewer resources (Anon, 1984; Wiktorsson, 1992). These goats are often kept in combination with *Corresponding author. 0921-4488/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSD10921-4488(94)00006-S cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, where veterinary inputs are usually low or absent and hygiene poor. Con- versely, milk goats are kept by governmental organi- zations and privately owned progressive farms, where hygiene is good and veterinary inputs satisfactory (Eik et al., 1988). The presence of Campylobacterjejuni among healthy and diseased farm animals has been reported in many countries (Prescott and Bruin-Mosch, 1981; Olubumni and Adeniran, 1986). Jiwa and Ish- engoma (1985) reported the presence of C.jejuni and C. coli in a number of animals including goats on the Sokoine University of Agriculture Farm, Morogoro, Tanzania. The objectives were to study occurrences of Campylobacter in urban goats and other domesticated animals, and the question of which species serve as natural host of the natural infection. Parts of this study have been reported by Jiwa (1991).