title: Virulence Profiles of Vibrio vulnificus in German Coastal Waters, a Comparison of North Sea and Baltic Sea Isolates.
abstract: Vibrio vulnificus is a halophilic bacterium of coastal environments known for sporadically causing severe foodborne or wound infections. Global warming is expected to lead to a rising occurrence of V. vulnificus and an increasing incidence of human infections in Northern Europe. So far, infections in Germany were exclusively documented for the Baltic Sea coast, while no cases from the North Sea region have been reported. Regional variations in the prevalence of infections may be influenced by differences in the pathogenicity of V. vulnificus populations in both areas. This study aimed to compare the distribution of virulence-associated traits and genotypes among 101 V. vulnificus isolates from the Baltic Sea and North Sea in order to assess their pathogenicity potential. Furthermore, genetic relationships were examined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). A high diversity of MLST sequences (74 sequence types) and differences regarding the presence of six potential pathogenicity markers were observed in the V. vulnificus populations of both areas. Strains with genotypes and markers associated with pathogenicity are not restricted to a particular geographic region. This indicates that lack of reported cases in the North Sea region is not caused by the absence of potentially pathogenic strains.
authors.affiliation: National Reference Laboratory for Monitoring Bacteriological Contamination of Bivalve Mollusks, Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, Berlin D-10589, Germany. nadja.bier@bfr.bund.de.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bier
authors.affiliation: National Reference Laboratory for Monitoring Bacteriological Contamination of Bivalve Mollusks, Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, Berlin D-10589, Germany. claudia.jaeckel@bfr.bund.de.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jäckel
authors.affiliation: National Reference Laboratory for Monitoring Bacteriological Contamination of Bivalve Mollusks, Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, Berlin D-10589, Germany. ralf.dieckmann@bfr.bund.de.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.affiliation: Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, Koblenz D-56068, Germany. Brennholt@bafg.de.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brennholt
authors.affiliation: Federal Institute of Hydrology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, Koblenz D-56068, Germany. simone_boeer@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Simone I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Böer
authors.affiliation: National Reference Laboratory for Monitoring Bacteriological Contamination of Bivalve Mollusks, Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, Berlin D-10589, Germany. eckhard.strauch@bfr.bund.de.
authors.forename: Eckhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Strauch
mesh_terms: D001454:Baltic States / Q000453:epidemiology; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D057232:Global Warming; D006801:Humans; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D009659:North Sea / Q000453:epidemiology; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010641:Phenotype; D015995:Prevalence; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D041261:Vibrio vulnificus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics*; D014946:Wound Infection / Q000382:microbiology
keywords: genotypes; global warming; multilocus sequence typing; pathogenicity potential; public health risk; vibrio infection; virulence-associated traits