40 Years of Study on Vibrio vulnificus and Shellfish
Jim Oliver
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Jim Oliver is Bonnie Cone Distinguished Professor and Professor of Microbiology at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Adjunct Professor at Duke University. He received his BS in microbiology from the University of Arizona, his PhD at Georgetown University, and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Ottawa. He has held visiting professorships in Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, and here at NUI Galway, and was a McCurdy Scholar at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, on the Editorial Board of FEMS Microbial Ecology, and has presented nearly 130 seminars/invited talks in 19 countries. He lists 175 scientific publications and 21 book chapters, the great majority of which are on the human pathogen, Vibrio vulnificus. The WHO introduced Jim as “a microbiologist who has studied the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus for 35 years and is considered..….to probably be the foremost expert in the world on this bacterium”.
Abstract
My lab has studied pathogenic vibrios for over 40 years, concentrating on their presence in molluscan shellfish, including uptake (via marine “snow”), depuration, survival, pathogenesis, the role of the viable but... [ view full abstract ]
My lab has studied pathogenic vibrios for over 40 years, concentrating on their presence in molluscan shellfish, including uptake (via marine “snow”), depuration, survival, pathogenesis, the role of the viable but nonculturable state, and increasingly transcriptomics. Most recently we completed a 55 month-long study simultaneously sampling for the presence of Vibrio vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus in oysters, clams, and surrounding waters in North Carolina estuaries, along with environmental factors controlling their presence. We concluded that while vibrio concentrations in oysters and water are related, this is not the case with vibrios in clams and water. Clams also contained fewer vibrios, and environmental parameters that correlated with vibrios in oysters and water were different than those in clams. These findings highlight the need for clam-specific environmental research to broaden our understanding of clam-Vibrio interactions. The results allowed us to develop a “risk matrix” tool to predict environmental conditions leading to the presence of high numbers of these pathogens in water and shellfish.
During this study we also tested for the virulence genes, vceC/E and tdh/trh, in these two pathogens. We found 6% of V. vulnificus isolates were the clinical (C-) genotype, while 94% were the environmental (E-) genotype. Both genotypes exhibited a correlation with temperature but different salinity and pH optima. Relatively few V. parahaemolyticus strains possessed tdh or trh, and little correlation to salinity or temperature was seen.
My talk will describe these various studies, including the role of global climate change on the distribution and spread of pathogenic vibrios.
Session
KN-8 » Keynote Jim Oliver (14:00 - Thursday, 18th May, Bailey Allen 1)
