AEM
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Motes, M. L.
Right arrow Articles by Chirtel, S. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Motes, M. L.
Right arrow Articles by Chirtel, S. J.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Motes, M. L.
Right arrow Articles by Chirtel, S. J.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Appl Environ Microbiol, April 1998, p. 1459-1465, Vol. 64, No. 4
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Influence of Water Temperature and Salinity on Vibrio vulnificus in Northern Gulf and Atlantic Coast Oysters (Crassostrea virginica)

M. L. Motes,1 A. DePaola,1 D. W. Cook,1,* J. E. Veazey,2 J. C. Hunsucker,3 W. E. Garthright,4 R. J. Blodgett,4 and S. J. Chirtel4

Gulf Coast Seafood Laboratory, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dauphin Island, Alabama 36528-01581; State Cooperative Programs, Southeast Region, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 708092; Southeast Regional Laboratory, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Atlanta, Georgia 303093; and Division of Mathematics, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Washington, D.C. 202044

Received 14 November 1997/Accepted 30 January 1998

This study investigated the temperature and salinity parameters associated with waters and oysters linked to food-borne Vibrio vulnificus infections. V. vulnificus was enumerated in oysters collected at three northern Gulf Coast sites and two Atlantic Coast sites from July 1994 through September 1995. Two of these sites, Black Bay, La., and Apalachicola Bay, Fla., are the source of the majority of the oysters implicated in V. vulnificus cases. Oysters in all Gulf Coast sites exhibited a similar seasonal distribution of V. vulnificus: a consistently large number (median concentration, 2,300 organisms [most probable number] per g of oyster meat) from May through October followed by a gradual reduction during November and December to <= 10 per g, where it remained from January through mid-March, and a sharp increase in late March and April to summer levels. V. vulnificus was undetectable (<3 per g) in oysters from the North and South Carolina sites for most of the year. An exception occurred when a late-summer flood caused a drop in salinity in the North Carolina estuary, apparently causing V. vulnificus numbers to increase briefly to Gulf Coast levels. At Gulf Coast sites, V. vulnificus numbers increased with water temperatures up to 26°C and were constant at higher temperatures. High V. vulnificus levels (>103 per g) were typically found in oysters from intermediate salinities (5 to 25 ppt). Smaller V. vulnificus numbers (<102 per g) were found at salinities above 28 ppt, typical of Atlantic Coast sites. On 11 occasions oysters were sampled at times and locations near the source of oysters implicated in 13 V. vulnificus cases; the V. vulnificus levels and environmental parameters associated with these samples were consistent with those of other study samples collected from the Gulf Coast from April through November. These findings suggest that the hazard of V. vulnificus infection is not limited to brief periods of unusual abundance of V. vulnificus in Gulf Coast oysters or to environmental conditions that are unusual to Gulf Coast estuaries.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Gulf Coast Seafood Laboratory, Dauphin Island, AL 36528-0158. Phone: (334) 694-4480. Fax: (334) 694-4477. E-mail: DWC{at}vm.cfsan.fda.gov.




This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Eukaryot. Cell All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.