Dataset Information

Temporal and spatial variability in culturable pathogenic Vibrio spp. in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the abundance, distribution, and virulence gene content of Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus in the waters of southern Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana on four occasions from October 2005 to September 2006, using selective cultivation and molecular assays. The three targeted pathogenic vibrios were generally below the detection level in January 2006, when the water was cold (13°C), and most abundant in September 2006, when the lake water was warmest (30°C). The maximum values for these species were higher than reported previously for the lake by severalfold to orders of magnitude. The only variable consistently correlated with total vibrio abundance within a single sampling was distance from shore (P = 0.000). Multiple linear regression of the entire data set revealed that distance from shore, temperature, and turbidity together explained 82.1% of the variability in total vibrio CFU. The log-transformed mean abundance of V. vulnificus CFU in the lake was significantly correlated with temperature (P = 0.014), but not salinity (P = 0.625). Virulence-associated genes of V. cholerae (ctx) and V. parahaemolyticus (trh and tdh) were not detected in any isolates of these species (n = 128 and n = 20, respectively). In contrast, 16S rRNA typing of V. vulnificus (n = 298) revealed the presence of both environmental (type A) and clinical (type B) strains. The percentage of the B-type V. vulnificus was significantly higher in the lake in October 2005 (35.8% of the total) than at other sampling times (P ? 0.004), consistent with the view that these strains represent distinct ecotypes.

SUBMITTER: Nigro OD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3147459 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Temporal and spatial variability in culturable pathogenic Vibrio spp. in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Nigro Olivia D OD Hou Aixin A Vithanage Gayatri G Fujioka Roger S RS Steward Grieg F GF

Applied and environmental microbiology 20110603 15

We investigated the abundance, distribution, and virulence gene content of Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus in the waters of southern Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana on four occasions from October 2005 to September 2006, using selective cultivation and molecular assays. The three targeted pathogenic vibrios were generally below the detection level in January 2006, when the water was cold (13°C), and most abundant in September 2006, when the lake water was warmest (30°C). T ...[more]

PMID: 21642406

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundHurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm in August 2005. Storm surges, levee failures, and the low-lying nature of New Orleans led to widespread flooding, damage to over 70% of occupied housing, and evacuation of 80-90% of city residents. Only 57% of the city's black population has returned. Many residents complain of gentrification following rebuilding efforts. Climate gentrification is a recently described phenomenon whereby the effects of climate change, most notably rising sea levels and more frequent flooding and storm surges, alter housing values in a way that leads to gentrification.ObjectiveTo examine the climate gentrification following hurricane Katrina by (1) estimating the associations between flooding severity, ground elevation, and gentrification and (2) whether these relationships are modified by neighborhood level pre- and post-storm sociodemographic factors.MethodsLidar data collected in 2002 were used to determine elevation. Water gauge height of Lake Ponchartrain was used to estimate flood depth. Using census tracts as a proxy for neighborhoods, demographic, housing, and economic data from the 2000 decennial census and the 2010 and 2015 American Community Survey 5-year estimates US Census records were used to determine census tracts considered eligible for gentrification (median income < 2000 Orleans Parish median income). A gentrification index was created using tract changes in education level, population above the poverty limit, and median household income. Proportional odds ordinal logistic regression was used with product terms to test for effect measure modification by sociodemographic factors.ResultsCensus tracts eligible for gentrification in 2000 were 80.2% black. Median census tract flood depth was significantly lower in areas eligible to undergo gentrification (0.70 m vs. 1.03 m). Residents of gentrification-eligible tracts in 2000 were significantly more likely to be black, less educated, lower income, unemployed, and rent their home rather than own. In 2015 in these same eligible tracts, areas that underwent gentrification became significantly whiter, more educated, higher income, less unemployed, and more likely to live in a multi-unit dwelling. Gentrification was inversely associated with flood depth and directly associated with ground elevation in eligible tracts. Marginal effect modification was detected by the effect of pre-storm black race on the relationships of flood depth and elevation with gentrification.ConclusionsGentrification was strongly associated with higher ground elevation in New Orleans. These results provide evidence to support the idea of climate gentrification described in other low-elevation major metropolitan areas like Miami, FL. High elevation, low-income, demographically transitional areas in particular - that is areas that more closely resemble high-income area demographics, may be vulnerable to future climate gentrification.

Project description:Vibrio spp. have been a persistent concern for coastal bivalve hatcheries, which are vulnerable to environmental pathogens in the seawater used for rearing larvae, yet the biogeochemical drivers of oyster-pathogenic Vibrio spp. in their planktonic state are poorly understood. Here, we present data tracking oyster-pathogenic Vibrio bacteria in Netarts Bay and Yaquina Bay in Oregon, USA, as well as in adjacent coastal waters and a local shellfish hatchery, through the 2015 upwelling season. Vibrio populations were quantified using a culture-independent approach of high-throughput Vibrio-specific 16S rRNA gene sequencing paired with droplet digital PCR, and abundances were analyzed in the context of local biogeochemistry. The most abundant putative pathogen in our samples was Vibrio coralliilyticus Environmental concentrations of total Vibrio spp. and V. coralliilyticus were highest in Netarts Bay sediment samples and higher in seawater from Netarts Bay than from nearshore coastal waters or Yaquina Bay. In Netarts Bay, the highest V. coralliilyticus concentrations were observed during low tide, and abundances increased throughout the summer. We hypothesize that the warm shallow waters in estuarine mudflats facilitate the local growth of the V. coralliilyticus pathogen. Samples from larval oyster tanks in Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery, which uses seawater pumped directly from Netarts Bay, contained significantly lower total Vibrio species concentrations, but roughly similar V. coralliilyticus concentrations, than did the bay water, resulting in a 30-fold increase in the relative abundance of the V. coralliilyticus pathogen in hatchery tanks. This suggests that the V. coralliilyticus pathogen is able to grow or persist under hatchery conditions.IMPORTANCE It has been argued that oyster-pathogenic Vibrio spp. have contributed to recent mortality events in U.S. shellfish hatcheries (R. A. Elston, H. Hasegawa, K. L. Humphrey, I. K. Polyak, and C. Häse, Dis Aquat Organ 82:119-134, 2008, https://doi.org/10.3354/dao01982); however, these events are often sporadic and unpredictable. The success of hatcheries is critically linked to the chemical and biological composition of inflowing seawater resources; thus, it is pertinent to understand the biogeochemical drivers of oyster-pathogenic Vibrio spp. in their planktonic state. Here, we show that Netarts Bay, the location of a local hatchery, is enriched in oyster-pathogenic V. coralliilyticus compared to coastal seawater, and we hypothesize that conditions in tidal flats promote the local growth of this pathogen. Furthermore, V. coralliilyticus appears to persist in seawater pumped into the local hatchery. These results improve our understanding of the ecology and environmental controls of the V. coralliilyticus pathogen and could be used to improve future aquaculture efforts, as multiple stressors impact hatchery success.

Project description:Vibrio species are widely distributed in warm estuarine and coastal environments, and they can infect humans through the consumption of raw and mishandled contaminated seafood. In this study, we aimed to isolate and observe the distribution of enteropathogenic Vibrio spp. from environments of the southern coast of South Korea over a season cycle. A total of 10,983 isolates of Vibrio spp. were obtained from tidal water and mud samples over a 1-year period from five sampling sites along the southwest coast of South Korea. We found that Vibrio alginolyticus (n = 6,262) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (n = 1,757) were ubiquitous in both tidal water and mud year round, whereas Vibrio cholerae (n = 24) and Vibrio vulnificus (n = 130) were seasonally specific to summer. While all V. cholerae isolates were nontoxigenic (non-O1 and non-O139), more than 88% of V. vulnificus isolates possessed the virulence factor elastolytic protease (encoded by vvp). Interestingly, V. parahaemolyticus, which was omnipresent in all seasons, contained the virulence factors thermostable direct hemolysin (encoded by tdh) and thermostable direct hemolysin-related hemolysin (encoded by trh) in larger amounts in June (29 trh-positive strains) and September (14 tdh-, 36 trh-, and 12 tdh- and trh-positive strains) than in December (4 trh-positive strains) and February (3 tdh-positive strains), and virulence factors were absent from isolates detected in April. To understand why virulence factors were detected only in the warm season and were absent in the cold season although the locations are static, long-term monitoring and particularly seasonal study are necessary. The presence of enteropathogenic Vibrio species (Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio vulnificus), which cause acute diarrheal infection, septicemia, and wound infections upon ingestion through food and water, is usually associated with temperature. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that there are 1.4 to 4.3 million cases and 28,000 to 142,000 deaths per year worldwide caused by cholera disease. In South Korea alone, consumption is as much as 52.4 kg of fish and shellfish per year per capita. Our findings suggested that seasonally specific acceleration of these possible pathogenic Vibrio spp. may threaten seafood safety and increase the risk of illness in South Korea, where local people consume raw fish during warmer months.

Dataset Information

Temporal and spatial variability in culturable pathogenic Vibrio spp. in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Publications

Temporal and spatial variability in culturable pathogenic Vibrio spp. in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets