Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Food Poisoning-

Gastroenteritis
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the leading causative agents of human acute
gastroenteritis and occur usually from the consumption of raw, undercooked,
and cross-contaminated seafood products.
They are inhabitants of tropical marine and coastal environments and are
found in the gut of filter-feeding molluscan shellfish (oysters, clams, and
mussels), where they adhere and multiply.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus also cause wound and ear infection and septicemia in
the case of immune-compromised individuals who are exposed to seawater.
Vibrio species that are pathogenic to humans are Vibrio cholera, Vibrio
carchariae, Vibrio mimicus, Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio metschnikovii, Vibrio
damsel and Vibrio fluvialis.
Characteristics of Vibrio parahaemolyticus
 Gram-negative
 Curve rod-shaped
 Non-spore former
 Slightly halophilic (20 to 25 ppt salt)
 Facultative anaerobe
 Oxidase positive
 Motile
 Optimum temperature 30 to 35°C
 pH range from 6.8 to 10.2
Source of contamination of Vibrio
parahaemolyticus
 Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a marine and halophilic bacterium that floats
freely on the water with the help of its single polar flagellum.
 It adheres to animate surfaces like fishes, crabs, shrimp, lobster, zooplankton,
and shells of other aquatic animals.
 When raw and undercooked seafood that is contaminated with V.
parahaemolyticus is consumed, it causes acute gastroenteritis in humans.
 Other sources are cross-contamination of virulent strains of V.
parahaemolyticus from the sea products or equipment to other products.
 When open wound or cuts is exposed to contaminated seawater, it can also
cause infection.
Pathogenesis of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Food
Poisoning
 Vibrio parahaemolyticus is classified into two types based on its antigenic
properties; Somatic (O) and Capsular (K) antigen.
 It also produces different virulence factors such as adhesins, thermostable
direct hemolysin (tdh), TDH-related hemolysin (trh), and Type III secretion
systems (T3SS1 and T3SS2).

Additionally. V. parahaemolyticus have two different types of flagella for

motility as well as to produce a capsule that helps the pathogen to survive in
harsh environmental conditions.

 Infection usually occurs through the fecal-oral route and adheres to the host
cell with the help of bacterial adhesion factors, which are present at the
bacterial cell surface.
 Thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) causes lysis of human erythrocyte cells
by binding on the red blood cell membrane.
 It forms a pore on the surface of the membrane, which leads to the
permeation of cell components of RBCs.
 Vibrio parahaemolyticus also forms a toxin, an enzymatic activity known as
cytotoxicity formed by tdh and TDH-related hemolysin (trh).
 TDH is responsible for causing toxicity of cells by forming a channel where
extracellular Ca2+ concentration and Cl– secretion increase within the cell.
 As the osmotic pressure increases in the cell, its morphology, pathology, and
self-regulation change causing the cell to expand and eventually die.
 Another Thermolabile hemolysin (TLH) gene is associated with stimulating
intestinal infection and also causes lysis of human erythrocytes.
 Early studies showed that urease is an important virulence factor in trh+ V.
parahaemolyticus strains that causes gastrointestinal inflammatory lesions.
 The type three secretion system (T3SS1) induces autophagy and cytotoxicity
during tissue cell infection.
 It serially causes autophagy, cell blebbing, cell rounding, cell lysis, and finally,
death.
 Type IV secretion system (T6SS1 and T6SS2) addresses toxic effector proteins
in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells that disrupts the cell and kills it.
 T6SS is present in other Vibrio species as well and is used as a virulence
marker in detecting pandemic or non-pandemic strains.
 T6SS1 gene is most active in warm conditions and can be isolated from the
clinical sample as well as from the environment.

Epidemiology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Food

Poisoning
 Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection has been reported in about 40.1% of
outbreaking cases in the part of coastal provinces in eastern China.
 The first outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus disease occurred in Japan in
1950, with 272 cases reported of acute gastroenteritis with the death of 20
individuals.
 It had been an epidemic in eastern China, with 802 reported cases causing
illness to 17,462 individuals.
 An outbreak of similar cases has been reported frequently in countries of
Asia, Europe, Africa, and America.
 More than 700 cases were reported in the United States of America from
1997 to 1998 with the consumption of raw contaminated oysters.
 V. parahaemolyticus food poisoning usually occurs during summer, from
June to October, when the water is warm for the organism to thrive.
 Crab, shrimp, lobster, shellfish, oyster, clam, and tuna are high-risk sea
products that must be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
Signs and symptoms of Vibrio
parahaemolyticus Food Poisoning
 The typical symptoms are watery diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal
cramp, fever, and chills.
 The incubation period is about 12 to 24 hours of consumption of pathogen-
contaminated food and resolves within 5 to 7 days.
 Immunocompromised individuals may take a long time of about 10 to 15
days to recover as the disease is self-limiting and requires no medication.
 Some patients in severe cases may face mucus or blood in stool with a
decrease in blood pressure and become unconscious with pale and cyanotic
skin, and even die.
 Death occurs when the patient’s internal system changes with inflammation
and erosion of the jejunum and ileum, with liver, spleen, and lung damage
have been reported.
Detectionmethods of Vibrio
parahaemolyticus Food Poisoning
 Selective enrichment media with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS),
alkylbenzoate sulphonate, and bile salts are used for culturing and isolation
of Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
 The enrichment broth, like alkaline peptone water (APW), which has
optimum pH and a relatively high concentration of NaCl, favors the growth
of Vibrio species.
 The most probable number (MPN) method also determines the population
density of an organism in a sample which is a conventional method mostly
used in the laboratory.
 For the identification of strains of V. parahaemolyticus, molecular techniques
such as conventional phenotyping, biochemical tests, PCR-based assays,
DNA based methods have been used.
 Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays and Random
amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) are used for typing and
differentiating the strains of organisms.