Eating oysters without risk of vibriosis: Application of a bacteriophage against Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a major cause of foodborne illness and related with the consumption of raw contaminated seafood, especially oysters. To evaluate the effectiveness of various applications of a bacteriophage (phage), pVp-1, against a multiple-antibiotic-resistant V. parahaemolyticus pandemic strain (CRS 09-17), we designed artificial contamination models that are most likely to be encountered during oyster processing. When live oysters were treated with bath immersion with pVp-1 after CRS 09-17 challenge, the growth of bacterial strain was significantly reduced. After 72 h of phage application with bath immersion, bacterial growth reduction was observed to be 8.9 x 10(6) CFU/ml (control group) to 1.4 x 10 CFU/ml (treatment group). When pVp-1 was surface-applied on the flesh of oysters after CRS 09-17 inoculation, bacterial growth was properly inhibited. After 12 h of phage application on the surface of oysters, bacterial growth inhibition was revealed to be 1.44 x 10(6) CFU/ml (control group) to 1.94 CPU/ml (treatment group). This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, of oyster surface-application of a phage against a multiple-antibiotic-resistant V. parahaemolyticus pandemic strain, and our successful phage application to various situations emphasizes the potential use of the phage to avoid V. parahaemolyticus infection from aquaculture to consumption. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.