Prevalence and population analysis of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in aquatic products from South China markets

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a common foodborne pathogen in aquatic products. To investigate the prevalence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in aquatic products in South China, 224 samples were collected from markets in four provinces (11 cities) from May 2013 to January 2014. One hundred and fifty isolates were isolated from 98 samples. All isolates were analyzed for the presence of thermostable direct haemolysin (TDH) and TDH-related haemolysin (TRH) by PCR, antibiotic susceptibility analysis by disk diffusion method, serotyping by multiplex PCR and molecular typing by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR) typing. Although all 150 isolates were negative for tdh, 61 strainswere trh positive (40.67%). Antimicrobial susceptibility results indicated that most strains were resistant to streptomycin (88.67%), cefazolin (66.00%) and ampicillin (62.67%). All strains were susceptible to chloramphenicol. Forty percent of all isolates were O2 type. The 150 isolates were grouped into three clusters by ERIC-PCR typing. The results demonstrated the presence of V. parahaemolyticus in aquatic products from the retail market and this methodology can be used for microbiological risk assessment in China.