title: Epidemiology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus outbreaks, southern Chile.
abstract: Disease outbreaks caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Puerto Montt, Chile, began in 2004 and reached a peak in 2005 at 3,600 clinical cases. Until 2006, every analyzed case was caused by the serovar O3:K6 pandemic strain. In the summer of 2007, only 475 cases were reported; 73% corresponded to the pandemic strain. This decrease was associated with a change in serotype of many pandemic isolates to O3:K59 and the emergence of new clinical strains. One of these strains, associated with 11% of the cases, was genotypically different from the pandemic strain but contained genes that were identical to those found on its pathogenicity island. These findings suggest that pathogenicity-related genes were laterally transferred from the pandemic strain to one of the different V. parahaemolyticus groups comprising the diverse and shifting bacterial population in shellfish in this region.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harth
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Maria L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rioseco
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Narjol
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: González-Escalona
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez-Urtaza
authors.forename: Romilio T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Espejo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012703:Serotyping; D012758:Shellfish / Q000382:microbiology*; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D014736:Vibrio parahaemolyticus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity