Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a marine and estuarine bacterium that has been the leading cause of foodborne outbreaks which leads to a significant threat to human health worldwide. Consumption of seafood contaminated with V. parahaemolyticus causes acute gastroenteritis in individuals. The bacterium poses two main virulence factor including the thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh) which is a pore-f...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus organisms cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. These bacteria are natural inhabitants of both marine and estuarine ecosystems. In the present study, we investigated the effectiveness of a non-selective enrichment of sediment samples with sodium chloride prior to selective enrichment with alkaline peptone water for a better recovery of V. parahaemolyticus. Sediment samp...

The Vibrio parahaemolyticus type III secretion system 1 (T3SS1) induces cytotoxicity in mammalian epithelial cells. We characterized the cell death phenotype in both epithelial (HeLa) and monocytic (U937) cell lines following infection with V. parahaemolyticus. Using a combination of the wild-type strain and gene knockouts, we confirmed that V. parahaemolyticus strain NY-4 was able to induce ce...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a clinically important foodborne pathogen that causes acute gastroenteritis worldwide. It has been shown that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) contributes significantly to virulence development of V. parahaemolyticus. In this study, we identified a novel znuA homolog (vpa1307) that belongs to a novel subfamily of ZnuA, a bacterial zinc transporter. The vpa1307 gene is l...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the most common foodborne pathogens in Asian countries. V. parahaemolyticus contamination of retail shrimp in China has been reported previously, and such contaminated shrimp have been linked to outbreaks of foodborne diseases. However, to date, the prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus in retail shrimp in China has not been determined. This study aimed at identify...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, autochthonous to estuarine, marine, and coastal environments throughout the world, is the causative agent of food-borne gastroenteritis. More than 80 serotypes have been described worldwide, based on antigenic properties of the somatic (O) and capsular (K) antigens. Serovar O3:K6 emerged in India in 1996 and subsequently was isolated worldwide, leading to the conclusion...

Kanagawa-positive Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains are considered to be human pathogens and are most commonly associated with summer diarrhea. Kanagawa-negative strains are most frequently isolated from the environment and are generally considered to be nonpathogens. We report a wound infection caused by a Kanagawa-negative V. parahaemolyticus strain. The infection occurred in October, an unusua...

Vibriosis is a leading cause of seafood-associated morbidity and mortality in the United States. Typically associated with consumption of raw or undercooked oysters, vibriosis associated with clam consumption is increasingly being reported. However, little is known about the prevalence of Vibrio spp. in clams. The objective of this study was to compare the levels of Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio vuln...

In this study, a total of 90 seafood samples; croaker fish (Pseudotolithus senegalensis), shrimps (Penaeus notialis) and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) collected from landing sites along the Lagos Lagoon in Nigeria were examined for the prevalence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus using both biochemical and molecular methods. Biochemical identification of the isolates was confirmed by Polymerase Chai...

BACKGROUND Vibrio parahaemolyticus causes acute gastroenteritis and inflammations in humans. A variety of pathogenic bacteria can stimulate mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in host cells. Phosphorylation of MAPKs leads to production of interleukin (IL)- 8 and subsequently causes inflammations. Thus, MAPK cascades were strong candidates for the main signaling pathway of V. parahaemolyti...