Vibrio in seafood - FAO.org

2.1.2 Foods implicatedV. parahaemolyticus occurs in a variety of fish and shellfish including clams, shrimp, lobster,crayfish, scallops and crabs as well as oysters. Although oysters are the most common food associatedwith Vibrio infection in some countries (Hlady, 1997), there have been reports of V. parahaemolyticusinfections associated with the other types of seafood. One such report was a case-controlled study ofsporadic Vibrio infections in two coastal areas of the states of Louisiana and Texas in the United Statesconducted from 1992-93, in which crayfish consumption was reported by 50% (5/10) of the personsaffected with V. parahaemolyticus infection (Bean et al., 1998). Outbreaks of V. parahaemolyticusgastroenteritis aboard two Caribbean cruise ships were reported in 1974 and 1975 (Lawrence et al., 1979).The outbreaks were most likely caused by contamination of cooked seafood by seawater from the ships’seawater fire systems. In 1972, an estimated 50% (600/1,200) of persons who attended a shrimp feast inLouisiana in the United States became ill with V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis (Barker et al., 1974).Samples of uncooked shrimp tested positive for the organism. Three outbreaks occurred in Maryland inthe United States in 1971 (Dadisman et al., 1972). Steamed crabs were implicated in two of the outbreaksafter cross-contamination with live crabs. The third outbreak was associated with crabmeat that hadbecome contaminated before and during canning. Recently, sampling studies in the Adriatic Seademonstrated the presence of V. parahaemolyticus in fish, mussels and clams (Baffone et al., 2000). In arecent study conducted mussels from the North-western coast of Spain V. parahaemolyticus was isolatedfrom 8% of samples (European Commission, 2001). Also Figure 3.1 in the section on risk assessment ofV. parahaemolyticus on raw and undercooked finfish summarises the types of seafoods implicated inV. parahaemolyticus outbreaks in Japan.Table 2.1. Available data on the incidence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infections in Europe. (EuropeanCommission, 2001)Country Period considered Number of Cases Symptoms Origin of dataDenmark1987-1992 1310Wound infectionEar infectionHornstrup and Gahrn-Hansen, 19931980-2000 2 Gastroenteritis Statens Serum Institut,CopenhagenEngland and Wales 1995-1999 115 PHLS, ColindaleFrance1995-1998 61GastroenteritisSepticemiaGeneste et al., 20001997 44 Gastroenteritis 1 Lemoine et al., 1999Northern Ireland 1990-1999 0 CDSC (CommunicableDisease SurveillanceCentre, NI)Scotland 1994-1999 6Spain 1995-1998 19 Gastroenteritis Anonymous, 1996Anonymous, 1998bSweden 1992-1997 350 Gastroenteritis 2 Lindquist et al., 2000Norway 1999 4 Unpublished data1One outbreak associated with seafood imported from Asia.2 One outbreak associated with consumption of crayfish imported from China.2.2 Exposure assessmentThe purpose of this exposure assessment is to quantify the exposure of consumers to pathogenicV. parahaemolyticus from the consumption of raw oysters.5