Survival of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Shrimp Tissue Under Various Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus culture O from Gulf Coast shrimp was inoculated into whole shrimp and shrimp homogenate to determine its survival at various temperatures and p H values. Although large decreases in viable population occurred during storage for 2 days at 10 to -18 C, survivors were present even after 8 days. No significant differences were observed in the population changes of inoculated whole shrimp as compared with shrimp homogenates. Low populations (5 × 10 2 per ml) of V. parahaemolyticus were destroyed by heating shrimp homogenates at 60, 80, and 100 C for 1 min. With larger populations (2 × 10 5 per ml), some survivors were present after heating at 60 and 80 C for 15 min. None survived 1 min at 100 C. V. parahaemolyticus was very sensitive to p H values below 6.0. Cells survived for several hours in the contents of the porcine gastrointestinal tract.