Campylobacteriosis is a foodborne disease caused by species of Campylobacter and is a public health problem of worldwide distribution. The disease has an acute, self-limiting character, with symptoms such as watery to bloody diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomit, and it affects mainly children under 5 years, elderly and immunocompromised patients. The disease has also been associated with other complications such as arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, Guillain-Barre or Miller-Fisher syndrome, among others. The main route of infection is through consumption of contaminated poultry meat or through direct contact with infected animals. The frequency of the disease increases continuously and around 190,566 cases of campylobacteriosis are reported annually in the whole world. However, in Colombia the diagnosis, isolation and molecular characterization of the pathogen are currently unknown. In this review, the characteristics, main sources of infection and reservoirs of Campylobacter are described, as well as the molecular techniques most frequently used for its diagnosis and characterization.