Assessment of Vibrionaceae prevalence in seafood from Qidong market and analysis of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Vibrionaceae family in retail seafood products available in the Qidong market during the summer of 2023 and to characterize Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates, given that this bacterium is the leading cause of seafood-associated food poisoning. We successfully isolated a total of 240 Vibrionaceae strains from a pool of 718 seafood samples. The breakdown of the isolates included 146 Photobacterium damselae, 59 V. parahaemolyticus, 18 V. campbellii, and 11 V. alginolyticus. Among these, P. damselae and V. parahaemolyticus were the predominant species, with respective prevalence rates of 20.3% and 8.2%. Interestingly, all 59 isolates of V. parahaemolyticus were identified as non-pathogenic. They demonstrated proficiency in swimming and swarming motility and were capable of forming biofilms across a range of temperatures. In terms of antibiotic resistance, the V. parahaemolyticus isolates showed high resistance to ampicillin, intermediate resistance to cefuroxime and cefazolin, and were sensitive to the other antibiotics evaluated. The findings of this study may offer valuable insights and theoretical support for enhancing seafood safety measures in Qidong City.