Key Points

In 2021, surveillance of Campylobacter infections confirmed the epidemiological and biological trends already observed in recent years. Specifically, the data show:

• a predominance of the C. jejuni species;

• a higher number of cases and incidence among children, with the highest incidence among those aged 0–9 years (27 cases per 100,000 population);

• a predominance of infections among men—15 cases per 100,000 inhabitants versus 11 cases per 100,000 among women (a less pronounced trend among those aged 20–39);

• a seasonal peak during the summer months;

• high resistance to fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines, which has remained stable in recent years;

• no notable increase in resistance rates for the six antibiotics routinely tested;

• consumption of poultry products as the primary food (identified or suspected) identified as the source of contamination in outbreaks of foodborne illness.

The number of Campylobacter strains recorded by the CNR has been increasing since 2013, the year online data entry was implemented by the network’s laboratories. By comparison, at the European level, the trend in the number of reported Campylobacter infections remained stable over the 2016–2020 period. This increase observed in France could reflect a real rise in Campylobacter infections. However, several factors, such as the consolidation of laboratories into technical platforms and the increasingly systematic use of multiplex PCR (diagnostic tests that allow for the simultaneous detection of multiple targeted pathogens from a single sample), facilitating the detection of Campylobacter sp., may have contributed to the increase in the number of strain isolates and, consequently, to the reporting by network laboratories over time.