Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence Factors, and Genetic Profiles of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from Seafood

Abstract

The presence of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood may pose a risk for consumers, especially in countries where shellfish are eaten raw. In recent years, a significant increase of food poisoning caused by these bacteria has been also observed in Europe. Our results highlight the high level of V. parahaemolyticus contamination of seafood, along with the isolates being potentially pathogenic for humans. However, the first-line antimicrobials, such as tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones, remained highly effective against V. parahaemolyticus . The monitoring of antimicrobial resistance of isolates is important to ensure the high efficacy in the treatment of human infections. Most of V. parahaemolyticus strains possessed new sequence types (STs), which showed the high genetic diversity of the isolates tested.