Category Archives: Vibrio

Canada – Updates Vibrio and Listeria monocytogenes

Posted on August 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

CFIA Eurofins Food Testing UK

The health hazard alert issued on August 7, 2013 has been updated to include additional distribution information.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume the clams described in the link below because they may be contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

Consumers who are unsure if they have purchased affected clams should contact their retailer.

The Canadian importers are voluntarily recalling the affected products from the marketplace.  The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recalls.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture announced a recall of oysters and clams from certain harvest areas, reporting that they were implicated in a number of illnesses in the US.  There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these oysters and clams in Canada.

CFIA

The public warning issued on August 2, 2013 has been updated to include additional Best Before date codes of the affected product.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Jan K Overweel Ltd. are warning the public not to consume the Ballarini brand Gorgonzola cheese products described in the above because the products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The following Ballarini brand Gorgonzola cheese, product of Italy, is affected by this alert.

Also affected by this alert are the above products which may have been sold in smaller packages, cut and wrapped by some retailers. Consumers are advised to contact the retailer to determine if they have the affected products.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.

The importer, Jan K Overweel Ltd., Woodbridge, ON, is voluntarily recalling the affected products from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.

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Posted in Bacteria, CFIA, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Laboratory, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen, Recall, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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Canada – Oysters and Clams – Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Posted on August 8, 2013 by | Leave a comment

CFIAVibrio

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume the oysters and clams described below because they may be contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

Consumers who are unsure if they have purchased affected oysters or clams should contact their retailer.

The Canadian importers are voluntarily recalling the affected products from the marketplace.  The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recalls.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture announced a recall of oysters and clams from certain harvest areas, reporting that they were implicated in a number of illnesses in the US.  There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these oysters and clams in Canada.  More information on the US recall is available at http://www.ct.gov/doag/cwp/view.asp?Q=529440&A=1401.

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Posted in Bacteria, CFIA, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Hygiene, Microbiology, Pathogen, Recall, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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USA – Warning – Vibrio in Warm Water Oysters

Posted on July 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News300px-Crassostrea_gigas_p1040848

The warmer coastal water temperature produced by summer weather creates ideal conditions for bacteria that can contaminate oysters, the Washington State Department of Health reminded the public over the Fourth of July weekend.

Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, two types of bacteria that grow in warm waters and can cause human illness, are known to be carried by oysters, especially in summer months.

There is further information at the link above.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Hygiene, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans, Water

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Research- Rsing Sea Temperatures Increased Vibrio?

Posted on February 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Huffington PostVibrio

In December, Darrell Dishon became one of the approximately 15 people each year who succumb to vibriosis after eating raw oysters. Vibriosis is an incredibly rare disease — but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that it’s getting more common.

“While all the other pathogens have shown a nice decline, the vibrios are about twice what it was since 1998. In a little over a decade, incidence has doubled. They’re still relatively small numbers — but it’s a very striking increase,” leading vibrio researcher Glenn Morris of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute told The Huffington Post.

Vibrio thrive in warm water. (That’s why the majority of cases happen in the summer, and why vibriosis is more closely associated with oysters from the Gulf of Mexico than from, say, the Pacific Northwest.) One widely publicized study published in July 2012 indicated that a 1-degree increase in the temperature of a body of water triples its vibrio population. For that reason, many scientists believe that climate change has contributed to the recent rise in vibriosis, and that it could make vibrio bacteria much more prevalent in coming years.

“Vibrios are in many ways the poster children for global warming, because they are so temperature sensitive and the temperature breakpoint for them is right around the point that we’re seeing temperature increases,” Morris explained.

The disease has already cropped up in places it had never been seen before: Israel, the Baltic Sea, even Alaska. Yet vibrio vulnificus, the form of vibrio bacteria that’s considered the most dangerous and the one that killed Dishon, remains most closely associated with oysters from the Gulf of Mexico. With only about 30 total cases in the United States a year, it’s exceptionally rare. Your chances of finding a valuable pearl in one of the 2.5 billion oysters Americans eat a year are about 100 times greater than your chances of contracting vibrio vulnificus.

Yet when it strikes, it strikes hard. It kills about half the people who get it, a rate comparable, among foodborne illnesses, only to the dreaded listeria monocytogenes. And many of these deaths are unusually painful.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Shellfish, Vibrio, Vibrio cholera, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans, Water

Research – HHP Inactivation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Posted on February 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Science Direct Vibrio

Abstract

The effects of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatments on Vibrio parahaemolyticus cells were investigated using viability counting, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in order to determine optimal inactivation conditions and further understand the mechanisms of microorganism inactivation under HHP. The results showed that 300-MPa treatment for 10 min could extensively inactivate V. parahaemolyticus, with the number of viable bacteria decreasing from 109 CFU/mL to no viable bacteria. Damage to the cell wall, cell membrane, and cytoplasmic components by HHP treatments can be observed on scanning as well as transmission electron microscopy images. SDS-PAGE results showed that the protein bands differed between HHP untreated and treated V. parahaemolyticus, whereas HHP decreased protein content and caused partial protein degradation. Therefore, our results indicate that HHP can be applied to inactivate V. parahaemolyticus by inducing morphological changes in internal and external structures in the cell, as well as by causing cell membrane damage, cell wall rupture, and membrane protein degradation.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Hygiene, Methods, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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Research Articles – Pulsed Electronic Field Milk – PCR Method Vibrio – Listeria Detection Culture Methods

Posted on December 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Science Direct

Abstract

Lethal and sublethal injury of two Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes) and one Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria in milk by pulsed electric fields (PEF) were determined using non-selective and selective media. PEF inactivation kinetics including lethal and sublethal injury fractions was also studied. The proportion of the sublethally injured microbial cells depended on the microorganisms, electric field strength and treatment time. The proportion of sublethally injured microbial cells reached maximum after a specific PEF treatment, and it kept constant or progressively decreased at greater electric field strengths and with longer PEF treatments. For the strain of L. monocytogenes, the proportion of sublethally injured cells increased from 18.98% to 43.64% with the increasing electric field strength from15 to 30 kV/cm. While for the strains of E. coli and S. aureus, the proportion of sublethally injured cells achieved the maximum (40.74% and 36.51%, respectively) at 25 kV/cm and then decreased. The proportion of the sublethally injured microbial cells reached maximum at 400 μs (S. aureus and L. monocytogenes) or 500 μs (E. coli), and decreased at longer treatments at 30 kV/cm. The PEF inactivation kinetics including lethal and sublethally injured fractions was analyzed by the Hülsheger model, and the model parameters (EC, tC, kE, bt) for lethal and sublethal injury were also calculated.

Science Direct

Abstract

A previously developed multiplex PCR targeting gyrB of Vibrios at genus level and pntA genes for specific detection of Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus was evaluated. The sensitivity of the multiplex PCR on spiked seafood was 1.5 × 103 CFU g−1. One hundred and fifty seafood samples were collected from retail stores and hypermarkets in different locations in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Seri Kembangan. The prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus was 29% (43/150). The pntA primers for V. parahaemolyticus detection were 100% specific and comparable to the toxR gene-based PCR. Six (12%) and 2 (4%) isolates contained trh and tdh genes, respectively. Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic PCR (REP-PCR) was used to genetically characterize the V. parahaemolyticus isolates in which 41 REP profiles were observed and all the isolates were categorized into 11 distinct clusters at the similarity of 80%. tdh-positive isolates shared a low level of similarity with trh-positive isolates. The prevalence of V. parahaemolyticus and particularly the presence of virulent gene such as trh and tdh among the isolates reiterate a high risk of contamination for seafood consumers in Malaysia. DNA fingerprinting of V. parahaemolyticus in this study indicates a high genetic diversity among the isolates and REP-PCR was able to distinguish the isolates with different virulotypes.

Science Direct

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of Listeria spp., specifically Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and ascertain the efficiency of detecting L. monocytogenes with different selective culture media. A total of 396 RTE food samples were purchased from hypermarkets and streetside hawker stalls to examine the presence of Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes. The presumptive isolates were characterized biochemically and were further confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Out of 396 samples, Listeria spp. was detected in 71 (17.9%) samples in which 45 (11.4%) were positive for L. monocytogenes. Among the studied RTE foods, salads and vegetables had the highest prevalence (14.7%) of L. monocytogenes, followed by chicken and chicken products (13.2%), beverages (10%), eggs and egg products (9.5%), beef and beef products (6.7%), lunch boxes (6.7%) and seafood and seafood products (6.7%). Both Listeria selective agar and PALCAM agar displayed a low sensitivity and specificity in L. monocytogenes detection compared to CHROMagar™ Listeria which demonstrated 96.9% of sensitivity and 99.1% of specificity in L. monocytogenes detection in naturally-contaminated foods. In conclusion, this work revealed consumption of RTE foods as a potential risk of listeriosis in this region. The high contamination rate of L. monocytogenes in salads and vegetables from hypermarkets and streetside hawker stalls was of great concern due to emerging fresh produce-borne L.monocytogenes globally. The scenario warrants further surveillance and action by the local authority to control the incidence of L. monocytogenes contamination in RTE foods.

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, Food Inspections, Food Testing, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Methods, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, STEC, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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European Alerts – Salmonella, Listeria, Vibrio

Posted on November 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

RASFF – Salmonella in Frozen Beef Fat in Italy sourced in Lithuania

RASFF – Salmonella in Mussels in Italy sourced in Spain.

RASFF – Listeria monocytogenes in Radish Sprouts in Germany sourced in Italy.

RASFF– Listeria welshimeri in Alfalfa Sprouts in Germany sourced in the Netherlands

RASFF – Salmonella, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans in Frozen Shrimps in Denmark sourced in Panama

Denmark – Salmonella in Salad in Denmark 

 

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Posted in Bacteria, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria welshimeri, Microbiology, Pathogen, Recall, Salmonella, Vibrio, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans

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USA – Shellfish Vibrio Poisoning

Posted on November 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning Bulletin Vibrio

The Cape Cod Times is reporting that eight cases of Vibrio food poisoning were reported in Massachusetts this year from oysters. Last summer the state designed new regulations to keep consumers safe from this bacteria, but they failed.  The eight cases were linked to oysters harvested from Wellfleet, Orleans, Edgartown, Duxbury, Kingston, Barnstable, and Dennis.

Vibrio populations double every 15 minutes, so keeping shellfish cool is critical to controlling bacterial growth.  

Vibrio was not seen in Massachusetts oysters until 2011 because the state’s colder water temperatures discouraged the growth of the bacteria. In every month in 2012, the mean air temperatures were higher than average, including the third-warmest April and the warmest August on record. Sea surface temperatures this year were the highest ever in the Northest.

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Posted in Bacteria, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Vibrio, Vibrio cholera, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans, Water

European Alerts – Recalls – Salmonella, Listeria, Vibrio, E.coli

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

RASFF – E.coli O103 in Bovine Lungs in Belgium

RASFF – Listeria monocytogenes in Ham from Belgium

RASFF – Salmonella in Crushed Spearmint in Denmark sourced in Egypt

RASFF – Listeria monocytogenes in Smoked Trout in France sourced in Spain

RASFF – Listeria monocytognes in Cheese from Belgium

RASFF – Vibrio cholerae in Black Tiger Prawns in Denmark sourced in Bangladesh

RASFF – Salmonella in Veal in the Netherlands sourced in Sweden

RASFF – Salmonella in Dog Chees in Belgium sourced from Thailand

RASFF – Salmonella in Chilled Mixed Salad in Sweden sourced in Denmark

Denmark  – Listeria monocytogenes in Ham Salad 

France – Listeria monocytogenes in Soft Cheese

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Posted in Bacteria, E.coli, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Hygiene, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen, RASFF, Recall, Vibrio, Vibrio cholera, Water

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Risk reduction assessment of waterborne Salmonella and Vibrio by a chlorine contact disinfectant point-of-use device

Posted on October 21, 2012 by | Leave a comment

PubMed

Unsafe drinking water continues to burden developing countries despite improvements in clean water delivery and sanitation, in response to Millennium Development Goal 7. Salmonella serotype Typhi and Vibrio cholerae bacteria can contaminate drinking water, causing waterborne typhoid fever and cholera, respectively. Household water treatment (HWT) systems are widely promoted to consumers in developing countries but it is difficult to establish their benefits to the population for specific disease reduction. This research uses a laboratory assessment of halogenated chlorine beads treating contaminated water to inform a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) of S. Typhi and V. cholerae disease in a developing country community of 1000 people. Laboratory challenges using seeded well water resulted in log(10) reductions of 5.44 (±0.98 standard error (SE)) and 6.07 (±0.09 SE) for Salmonella serotype Typhimurium and V. cholerae, respectively. In well water with 10% sewage and seeded bacteria, the log(10) reductions were 6.06 (±0.62 SE) and 7.78 (±0.11 SE) for S. Typhimurium and V. cholerae, respectively. When one infected individual was contributing to the water contamination through fecal material leaking into the water source, the risk of disease associated with drinking untreated water was high according to a Monte Carlo analysis: a median of 0.20 (interquartile range [IQR] 0.017-0.54) for typhoid fever and a median of 0.11 (IQR 0.039-0.20) for cholera. If water was treated, risk greatly decreased, to a median of 4.1×10(-7) (IQR 1.6×10(-8) to 1.1×10(-5)) for typhoid fever and a median of 3.5×10(-9) (IQR 8.0×10(-10) to 1.3×10(-8)) for cholera. Insights on risk management policies and strategies for public health workers were gained using a simple QMRA scenario informed by laboratory assessment of HWT.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Safety, Food Testing, Microbiology, Research, Salmonella, Vibrio, Vibrio cholera, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificans, Virus, Water

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