Epidemiologic Study of Vibrio vulnificus Infections by Using Variable Number Tandem Repeats

Abstract

A 3-year environmental and clinical Vibrio vulnificus survey using simple-sequence repeats typing shows that V. vulnificus biotype 3 constitutes ≈21% of the bacterium population in tested aquaculture ponds as opposed to ≈86% of clinical cases. Simple-sequence repeats proved to be a useful epidemiologic tool, providing information on the environmental source of the pathogen.

Keywords

• Vibrio vulnificus
• bacteria
• epidemiology
• variable number tandem repeats
• VNTR
• bacterial typing