Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Sea Food in Northern Taiwan

Pan TM

1998 Vol.14 NO.3

Correspondence Author:

Abstract:

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of the major pathogenic agents of bacterial gastroenteritis. They are more prevalent in the warm months(1,2). In coastal countries such as Taiwan, Japan, the south-east Asian countries, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States, they are a common pathogenic agent of food poisoning(1,3-10). The first incident of Vibrio parahaemolyticus-induced food poisoning was reported in 1950 in Osaka, Japan. It was a case of collective poisoning involving 272 victims after they had eaten fish contaminated by the pathogen. Of them, 20 had died of acute gastroenteritis. In 1953, Japanese scholars Fujino et al. succeeded in isolating Vibrio parahaemolyticus from feces of patients and cooked sardine. In 1963, the agent was named Vibrio parahaemolyticus by Sakazaki et a1(11).