Development of a real-time NASBA assay for the detection of Campylobacter jejuni cells

The objectives of this study were the development of a real-time NASBA assay for the detection of Campylobacter jejuni mRNA and the evaluation of its potential to determine the viability of the detected C. jejuni cells. A set of specific primers and probes was chosen to amplify the mRNA of the tuf-gene and the GTPase-gene. Only the tuf-assay was able to detect as low as 102 cells per NASBA reaction and was specific for Campylobacter. However, as the assay was able to detect dead cells, it cannot be used to demonstrate the viability of C. jejuni cells. The tuf-gene mRNA is no good viability indicator due to its stability.