. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Stalking the wild vibrio A quest for longer shelf life and better products Headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain? All-around symptoms of Montezuma's revenge? If the feelings begin after a hefty seafood dinner, Vibrio parahaemolyticus may be to blame. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a small, curved bac- teria which lives in most coastal waters. It's car- ried by fish and causes gastroenteritis when con- sumed in sufficient quantities. Vibrio is also the pathogen most often found in North Carolina's seafood, accordi
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Stalking the wild vibrio A quest for longer shelf life and better products Headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain? All-around symptoms of Montezuma's revenge? If the feelings begin after a hefty seafood dinner, Vibrio parahaemolyticus may be to blame. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a small, curved bac- teria which lives in most coastal waters. It's car- ried by fish and causes gastroenteritis when con- sumed in sufficient quantities. Vibrio is also the pathogen most often found in North Carolina's seafood, according to NCSU food scientists Marvin Speck and Bibek Ray. "We've taken seafood from the coastal area and from local markets here and we've done more than 400 samples looking for indicators such as coli- forms and plate counts and done some work look- ing for injured coliform. We've looked for patho- gens such as salmonella, shigella, anaerobic toxogenics and vibrio," Speck says. "And what we've found in most cases is Vibrio parahaemoly- ticus is the main contaminating pathogen. "Which is to be expected since it is a marine organism," he adds. A new problem Scientists on the east coast were surprised, however, when they discovered vibrio—which has plagued Japan for years—was a problem here. "For some reason we thought the whole problem was a Japanese problem because they ate so much raw fish," Speck says. "Then in 1971 we had our first outbreak of food poisoning traced to vibrio in Maryland. From then on, after the methodology was developed, vibrio was detected about every- where you looked for it in coastal waters. Now we think we have as much a problem as the ; The NCSU tests have shown vibrio in about 85 percent of the clams, 80 percent of the shrimp, 75 percent of the oysters, 30 to 40 percent of the sea scallops and varying amounts in finfish. The amounts of vibrio were not always enough to cause trouble. But vibrio mul
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