Screening of Vibrio cholerae from seafood

Abstract

Vibrio cholerae is a facultative anaerobic, Gram negative, non-spore forming curved rod, about 1.04 -1.06 µm long. It is a facultative human pathogen found in coastal waters that causes acute gastrointestinal disease. It is widely recognized as one of the most significant water borne pathogen of worldwide. Sea foods and water is the most common vehicle for this infection in humans. In developed countries exposure to V. cholerae often occurs via consumption of raw or undercooked shellfish or travel to regions where cholera outbreaks occur frequently. It is ubiquitous in estuarine environments, and infections due to these strains are commonly of environmental origin. So, it has been isolated from wide variety of samples such as seawater, sediments, plankton, finfish and shellfishes of coastal and estuarine environments. V. cholerae can be detected in these aquatic environments throughout the year. If the culture is negative in water samples do not definitively indicate absence of this organism, as cells can enter into a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state in which they may not form colonies on traditional bacteriological culture plates. Growth of V. cholerae is stimulated by addition of 1% sodium chloride (NaCl). However, it is an important distinction from other Vibrio species.