Risk assessment of vibriosis by Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio vulnificus in whip-arm octopus consumption in South Korea

Abstract

This study evaluated the risk of foodborne illness from highly pathogenic Vibrio spp. (Vibrio vulnificus and V. cholerae) by raw whip-arm octopus (Octopus minor) consumption. In total 180 samples of raw whip-arm octopus were collected from markets and examined for the prevalence of V. vulnificus and V. cholerae. Predictive models describing the kinetic behavior of Vibrio spp. in raw whip-arm octopus were developed, and the data on amounts and frequency of raw whip-arm octopus consumption were collected. Using the collected data, a risk assessment simulation was conducted to estimate the probability of foodborne illness raw whip-arm octopus consumption using @RISK. Initial contamination levels of Vibrio spp. in raw whip-arm octopus were –3.9 Log colony-forming unit/g, as estimated by beta distribution fitting. The developed predictive models were appropriate to describe Vibrio spp. in raw whip-arm octopus during distribution and storage with R2 values of 0.946–0.964. The consumption frequency and daily consumption amounts of raw whip-arm octopus per person were 0.47% and 57.65 g, respectively. The probability of foodborne illness from raw whip-arm octopus consumption was estimated to be 8.71 × 10−15 for V. vulnificus and 7.08 × 10−13 for V. cholerae. These results suggest that the risk of Vibrio spp. infection from raw whip-arm octopus consumption is low in South Korea.

Keywords

• microbial risk assessment
• highly pathogenic vibrio spp.
• raw whip-arm octopus
• vibrio vulnificus
• vibrio cholerae