EN
Campylobacter, especially C. jejuni, is now recognized as a major cause of bacterial enteritis in people in most developed countries. The diversity within C. jejuni species may be described by both phenotypic and genotypic methods. In recent years, molecular methods, such as the restriction of fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), fla typing or random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), have been proposed as alternative tests to phenotypic methods for typing of Campylobacter. This study was carried out to investigate the genetic variation among isolates C. jejuni by RAPD-PCR. The analysis of 19 isolates of C. jejuni performed with two primers (1254 and OPA-11) generated multiple amplification products, with sizes between 300 and 2000 bp. The UPGMA analysis of the fingerprints classified these strains to 10 clonal groups. The discriminatory index D=0.73 indicates a high differentiation ability of the method. Such data are valuable in epidemiological studies and for investigating the distribution of genotypes in different environments.