ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Open Access
Zainab Alsalem1, Nasreldin Elhadi1 , Mohammed Aljeldah2, Faisal Alzahrani1 and Mitsuaki Nishibuchi3
1Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, 31441 Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
2Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Hafr Al Baten, Hafr Al Baten, Saudi Arabia.
3Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 46 Shimoadachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2018;12(3):1355-1364
https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.12.3.38 | © The Author(s). 2018
Received: 06/08/2018 | Accepted: 24/09/2018 | Published: 30/09/2018
Abstract

Vibrio vulnificus is a Gram-negative, halophilic bacterium that mainly inhabits marine environments. It is responsible for causing gastroenteritis upon consuming contaminated seafood or exposure of an open wound to seawater. In addition, it has the ability to cause wound infection and septicaemia. It is also known to be an opportunistic organism that targets immunocompromised patients and those with liver disease. In the present study, 362 seawater samples were collected from 17 different locations along the coastal areas of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and were analyzed for the presence of V. vulnificus. There were 65 (17.95%) positive samples and 234 isolates of V. vulnificus. All positive isolates were tested for pathogenicity using PCR to detect the hemolysin-cytolysin (vvhA) gene, which was found in 52 (22%) of the isolates. The antibiotic susceptibility test indicated high resistance to ampicillin (96%), cephalothin (73%), rifampicin (63%), and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (56%). The MAR index was calculated for all antibiotics and revealed significant values (>0.2) for 34.6% of V. vulnificus isolates. Isolates positive for the vvhA gene were genotyped by using Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC-PCR) DNA fingerprinting. ERIC-PCR fingerprints of 52 isolates of V. vulnificus generated high similarity scores ranging from 85 to 100%, indicating significant genetic relatedness between the isolates. This study is the first to report the isolation of V. vulnificus positive for the vvhA gene from the coastal water in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords

Vibrio vulnificus, Hemolysin-cytolysin gene (vvhA), Antibiotic resistance, ERIC-PCR

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© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.