Poultry are considered the primary source of Campylobacter species infections in people. We aimed to detect various virulence factors of Campylobacter species, using PCR and evaluation of antimicrobial resistance patterns, in a total of 350 samples collected from chickens: 300 samples from dead birds with postmortem lesions, 50 from normal birds. Overall, 170/350 (48.57%) were culture positive for Campylobacter species Among these, 25 (14.7%) isolates were identified as C. jejuni and five (2.94%) as C. coli. All 25 isolates of C. jejuni were confirmed by the presence of 23S rRNA and the species-specific gene mapA; the five C. coli isolates were confirmed by the presence of ceuE. Simplex and multiplex PCR protocols were used to analyze the C. jejuni isolates for the presence of six putative virulence genes: the flagellum encoding gene flaA, the invasion-associated genes iamA and virB11, and the cytotoxin genes cdtA, B and C. These were identified in 3/25 (12%), 2/25 (8%), 3/25 (12%), 25/25 (100%), 0/25 (0.0%), and 0/25 (0.0%), respectively. Among the five C. coli isolates, two (40%) harbored virB11. The 30 Campylobacter isolates were classified into seven groups according to the exhibited antimicrobial resistance patterns, both species expressed high indices of antimicrobial resistance (0.67-0.89). The most effective antimicrobial against both species was amikacin while ciprofloxacin and doxycycline were effective against C. jejuni. Hence, both C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from diseased or healthy poultry constitute a public health concern because of the harbored virulence genes and high resistance to antimicrobials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]