This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Martinez-Urtaza, J.
Right arrow Articles by Liebana, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Martinez-Urtaza, J.
Right arrow Articles by Liebana, E.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2004, p. 4672-4678, Vol. 42, No. 10
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.10.4672-4678.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization of Pathogenic Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolates from Clinical Sources in Spain and Comparison with Asian and North American Pandemic Isolates

Jaime Martinez-Urtaza,1* Antonio Lozano-Leon,1 Angelo DePaola,2 Masanori Ishibashi,3 Kanae Shimada,4 Mitsuaki Nishibuchi,5 and Ernesto Liebana6

Instituto de Acuicultura, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Campus Universitario Sur, Santiago de Compostela, Spain,1 Gulf Coast Seafood Laboratory, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dauphin Island, Alabama,2 Osaka Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Higashinari-ku, Osaka,3 Kyoto University School of Public Health, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto,4 Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan,5 Department of Food and Environmental Safety, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge, Addlestone, Surrey, United Kingdom6

Received 23 April 2004/ Returned for modification 6 June 2004/ Accepted 5 July 2004

In spite of the potential risk involved with contamination of seafood with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, there is a lack of information on the occurrence of pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus in Europe. This organism was isolated in 1999 from a large outbreak (64 cases admitted to a single hospital) associated with raw oyster consumption in Galicia, Spain, one of the most important regions in shellfish production worldwide. Two V. parahaemolyticus isolates from the 1999 Galicia outbreak, three additional clinical isolates obtained in the same period from hospitals in Spain, two reference strains from clinical sources, and five Spanish environmental isolates were examined. Seventeen isolates belonging to the pandemic clone isolated in Asia and North America were included in the study for comparison. All isolates were characterized by serotyping, PCR for virulence-related genes, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and plasmid analysis. Four of the five clinical isolates from hospitals in Spain belonged to serotype O4:K11; the remaining isolate was O4:K untypeable (KUT). All five isolates were positive for V. parahaemolyticus toxR and tlh (species-specific genes) and tdh and negative for trh and group-specific PCR (a PCR method for detection of the pandemic clone). PFGE analysis with NotI and SfiI discriminated the European isolates in two closely related PFGE types included in a homogeneous cluster, clearly differentiated from the Asian and North American isolates. The five environmental isolates belonged to serotypes O2:K28, O2:KUT, O3:K53, O4:KUT, and O8:K22 and were negative for all virulence genes. The five isolates were discriminated into five different PFGE types unrelated to any other isolate included in the study. While the virulence characteristics (tdh positive, trh negative) of the Spanish clinical isolates matched those of the O3:K6 clone from Asia and North America, they were clearly excluded from this clone by group-specific PCR, PFGE, and serotyping. The results of this study suggest that a unique and specific clone could be related to the V. parahaemolyticus infections in Europe.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Instituto de Acuicultura, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Campus Universitario Sur, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Phone: 34 981 563100. Fax: 34 981 563100. E-mail: ucmjmur{at}usc.es.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2004, p. 4672-4678, Vol. 42, No. 10
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.10.4672-4678.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Zabala, B., Garcia, K., Espejo, R. T. (2009). Enhancement of UV Light Sensitivity of a Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 Pandemic Strain Due to Natural Lysogenization by a Telomeric Phage. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 1697-1702 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Banerjee, S. K., Farber, J. M. (2009). Susceptibility of Vibrio parahaemolyticus to Tris-Dependent DNA Degradation during Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 870-871 [Full Text]  
  • Kam, K. M., Luey, C. K. Y., Parsons, M. B., Cooper, K. L. F., Nair, G. B., Alam, M., Islam, M. A., Cheung, D. T. L., Chu, Y. W., Ramamurthy, T., Pazhani, G. P., Bhattacharya, S. K., Watanabe, H., Terajima, J., Arakawa, E., Ratchtrachenchai, O.-A., Huttayananont, S., Ribot, E. M., Gerner-Smidt, P., Swaminathan, B., for the Vibrio parahaemolyticus PulseNet PFGE Prot, (2008). Evaluation and Validation of a PulseNet Standardized Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Protocol for Subtyping Vibrio parahaemolyticus: an International Multicenter Collaborative Study. J. Clin. Microbiol. 46: 2766-2773 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Gonzalez-Escalona, N., Martinez-Urtaza, J., Romero, J., Espejo, R. T., Jaykus, L.-A., DePaola, A. (2008). Determination of Molecular Phylogenetics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains by Multilocus Sequence Typing. J. Bacteriol. 190: 2831-2840 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Izutsu, K., Kurokawa, K., Tashiro, K., Kuhara, S., Hayashi, T., Honda, T., Iida, T. (2008). Comparative Genomic Analysis Using Microarray Demonstrates a Strong Correlation between the Presence of the 80-Kilobase Pathogenicity Island and Pathogenicity in Kanagawa Phenomenon-Positive Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains. Infect. Immun. 76: 1016-1023 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Martinez-Urtaza, J., Lozano-Leon, A., Varela-Pet, J., Trinanes, J., Pazos, Y., Garcia-Martin, O. (2008). Environmental Determinants of the Occurrence and Distribution of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the Rias of Galicia, Spain. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 265-274 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Bhoopong, P., Palittapongarnpim, P., Pomwised, R., Kiatkittipong, A., Kamruzzaman, M., Nakaguchi, Y., Nishibuchi, M., Ishibashi, M., Vuddhakul, V. (2007). Variability of Properties of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains Isolated from Individual Patients. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 1544-1550 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Serichantalergs, O., Bhuiyan, N. A., Nair, G. B., Chivaratanond, O., Srijan, A., Bodhidatta, L., Anuras, S., Mason, C. J. (2007). The dominance of pandemic serovars of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in expatriates and sporadic cases of diarrhoea in Thailand, and a new emergent serovar (O3 : K46) with pandemic traits. J Med Microbiol 56: 608-613 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Nair, G. B., Ramamurthy, T., Bhattacharya, S. K., Dutta, B., Takeda, Y., Sack, D. A. (2007). Global Dissemination of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Serotype O3:K6 and Its Serovariants. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 20: 39-48 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wang, H.-z., Wong, M. M. L., O'Toole, D., Mak, M. M. H., Wu, R. S. S., Kong, R. Y. C. (2006). Identification of a DNA Methyltransferase Gene Carried on a Pathogenicity Island-Like Element (VPAI) in Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Its Prevalence among Clinical and Environmental Isolates.. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 4455-4460 [Abstract] [Full Text]