Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus detected in seafood products from Senegal

The detection of pathogenic Vibrio in seafood from Senegal has generated five food alerts in the European Union. To investigate the presence and abundance Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in seafood and coastal and estuarine waters, 123 seafood samples and 52 water samples were collected during 2007-2009 from two large seafood markets in Dakar, and from different oceanic and estuarine areas of the country. V. parahaemolyticus was detected in 30.1% of seafood samples, whereas presence of V. cholerae was only found in 1.6%. In water samples, V. parahaemolyticus and V. cholerae were detected in 28.8% and 5.7% of the samples, respectively. Abundance of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood from the fishing areas ranged from <0.3 to 7.5 most probable number (MPN) per gram. In samples from markets, densities of V. parahaemolyticus showed higher values ranging from 0.61 to >110 MPN/g. Densities of V. cholerae in the two positive seafood samples reached values of 0.36 and 0.61 MPN/g, repectively. V. parahaemolyticus strains were found to possess tlh, but not tdh and trh by polymerase chain reaction, and all the strains of V. cholerae were non-O1 or non-O139. These results suggest that the prevalence of high salinities in coastal and estuarine environments of Senegal limits the occurrence of V. parahaemolyticus and V. cholerae, despite warmer temperatures prevailing in seawater environments throughout the year. Furthermore, temperature abuse driven by a deficient cold chain over the distribution and retail sales may represent a major risk due to the postharvest multiplication of these Vibrio pathogens.