Detection of Salmonella and Vibrio species in some seafood in Alexandria

Sea foods are prone to bacterial contamination and could cause health risk to consumers. The present work aimed to study the occurrence of Salmonella and Vibrio in some seafood from different markets in Alexandria. The study was carried out on 150 seafood samples (shrimp, oyster (Gandofli) and mussel (Om El Kholoul)). For detection of Salmonella; samples were cultured on CHROM agar Salmonella Plus medium and Xylose lysine desoxycholate (XLD) agar plates. Thiosulphate Citrate Bile Salt Sucrose (TCBS) agar was used for Vibrio isolation. Salmonella was isolated from 10.0% of samples, distributed as 7 (14.0%), 4 (8%) and 4 (8%) from shrimp, oyster and mussel respectively. Vibrios were isolated from 52.0% of tested seafood with the highest percentage (88.0%) from oyster. The most frequently isolated Vibrio spp. were V. alginolyticus (52.5%), V. parahaemolyticus (14.1%) and V. mimcus (11.5%). Seven different Salmonella serotypes were identified (Typhimurium, Derby, Typhi, Paratyphi A, Paratyphi B, Infantis, and Abortus equi). Our results confirm that bacterial contamination in seafood products is common, and suggest that routine examination of such products for pathogenic agents would be advisable. [Wafaa MK Bakr, Walaa A Hazzah, Amani F Abaza. Detection of Salmonella and Vibrio species in some seafood in Alexandria. Journal of American Science 2011;7 (9):663-668]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience.org