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Development of a More Sensitive and Specific Chromogenic Agar Medium for the Detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Other Vibrio Species
09:34

Development of a More Sensitive and Specific Chromogenic Agar Medium for the Detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Other Vibrio Species

Published on: November 8, 2016

Molecular characterization of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains associated with foodborne illness in Florida

Carisa R Davis1, David L Wingfield, K Kealy Peak

  • 1Center for Biological Defense, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, 3602 Spectrum Boulevard, Tampa, Florida 33162, USA. cdavis1@health.usf.edu

Journal of Food Protection
|November 1, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Vibrio parahaemolyticus causes many seafood illnesses. Multilocus sequence typing identified pandemic strains from Florida outbreaks, proving more accurate than PCR or ribotyping for tracking these bacteria.

Area of Science:

  • Foodborne pathogens
  • Bacterial genomics
  • Molecular epidemiology

Background:

  • Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a significant cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States, often linked to seafood consumption.
  • Accurate identification and characterization of pandemic strains are crucial for public health surveillance and outbreak response.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains, including those from Florida foodborne outbreaks, to determine their pandemic status.
  • To evaluate the efficacy of different molecular typing methods for identifying pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains.

Main Methods:

  • Real-time PCR, pandemic group-specific PCR, ribotyping (PvuII), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were employed.
  • Thirty V. parahaemolyticus strains were analyzed, comprising 11 from Florida outbreaks and 6 known pandemic strains.
  • Novel sequence types and alleles were identified through MLST analysis.

Main Results:

  • Thirteen strains tested positive for four pandemic group-specific PCR markers; five were from Florida outbreaks.
  • Ribotyping showed nine Florida strains clustering with known pandemic strains, but without a distinct pandemic branch.
  • Multilocus sequence typing identified 14 strains with a known pandemic sequence type, and revealed 13 novel sequence types and numerous novel alleles.

Conclusions:

  • Seven strains from recent Florida foodborne outbreaks were confirmed as pandemic strains.
  • Multilocus sequence typing demonstrated superior accuracy in identifying pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains compared to PCR and ribotyping.
  • This study contributes to understanding the genetic diversity and spread of pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

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