title: Emergence and serovar transition of Vibrio parahaemolyticus pandemic strains isolated during a diarrhea outbreak in Vietnam between 1997 and 1999.
abstract: We characterized 523 Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains isolated during a survey of diarrhea patients in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam between 1997 and 1999. Forty-nine percent of the strains were judged to belong to the pandemic strains that emerged around 1996 and spread to many countries. These strains were positive in the GS-PCR assay and carried the tdh gene. The ORF8 of the f237 phage genome, a possible marker of the pandemic clone, was absent in 10% of these strains. Eleven O: K serovars were detected among the pandemic strains and the strains representing all 11 serovars of pandemic strains were shown to be closely related regardless of the ORF8 genotype using arbitrarily primed PCR and pulsed field gel electrophoresis analyses. It was clear that a transition of major serovars occurred among the pandemic strains represented by the emergence of O3: K6 in 1997, O4: K68 in 1998, and O1: K25 in 1998 and 1999.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
authors.forename: Ashrafuzzaman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishibashi
authors.forename: Vu Dinh
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Thiem
authors.forename: Dinh Thi Ngoc
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Tuyet
authors.forename: Tran Van
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Tung
authors.forename: Bui Trong
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: Lorenz von
authors.initials: Lv
authors.lastname: Seidlein Lv
authors.forename: Do Gia
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Canh
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clemens
authors.forename: Dang Duc
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Trach
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishibuchi
mesh_terms: D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012621:Seasons; D012703:Serotyping; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology