title: The virulence phenotypes and molecular epidemiological characteristics of Vibrio fluvialis in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vibrio fluvialis is considered to be an emerging foodborne pathogen and has been becoming a high human public health hazard all over the world, especially in coastal areas of developing countries and regions with poor sanitation. The distribution of virulence factors, microbiological and molecular epidemiological features of V. fluvialis isolates in China remains to be examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PCR targeted at the virulence determinants and phenotype tests including metabolism, virulence and antibiotic susceptibility were performed. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis was used to access the relatedness of isolates. A strain with deletion of the arginine dihydrolase system was first reported and proved in molecular level by PCR. Virulence genes vfh, hupO and vfpA were detected in all strains, the ability to produce hemolysin, cytotxin, protease and biofilm formation varied with strains. High resistance rate to β-lactams, azithromycin and sulfamethoxazole were observed. Twenty-seven percent of test strains showed resistant to two and three antibiotics. PFGE analysis demonstrated great genetic heterogeneity of test V. fluvialis strains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study evaluated firstly the biological characteristics and molecular epidemiological features of V. fluvialis in China. Some uncommon biochemical characteristics were found. Virulence genes were widely distributed in the isolates from patient and seafood sources, and the occurrence of virulence phenotypes varied with strains. Continued and enhanced laboratory based-surveillance is needed in the future together with systematically collection of the epidemiological information of the cases or the outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, and National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, 102206, People's Republic of China. kanbiao@icdc.cn.
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.forename: Weili
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liang