Vibrio parahaemolyticus sequence type 631, an emerging foodborne pathogen in North America

摘要: To the Editor: Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the leading seafood-transmitted bacterial 23 pathogen worldwide where it causes gastroenteritis and rarely lethal septicemia. The estimated 24 45,000 annual cases of foodborne V. parahaemolyticus infections in the United States (US) are 25 concerning because their incidences are rising despite control measures in part due to the impact 26 of changing climate on pathogen abundance and distribution (https://www. cdc. gov/vibrio/)(1). 27 Although the pandemic complex of strains, sequence type (ST) 3 (serotype O3: K6), has 28 dominated infections worldwide (2), in the US and Canada, the most prevalent clinical strain is 29 ST36 (O4: K12), which recently spread from the Pacific into the Atlantic (3-8). 30 Here we report a new lineage of V. parahaemolyticus, identified as ST631 is rapidly 31 emerging as the predominant pathogenic clade endemic to the Atlantic coast of North America (3, 32 4, 8). The first reported ST631 genome came from a clinical case that occurred in Louisiana in 33 2007 and was traced to oysters from Florida (8). In 2009 a second ST631 clinical isolate was 34 reported in Prince Edward Island Canada (O11: KUT)(4). From 2010 to 2015, the incidence of 35 infections by ST631 has increased with 35 confirmed cases reported in four Atlantic coastal US 36 states (Table 1) where they are second only to ST36 in prevalence. Due to the self-limiting 37 nature of infections and underreporting (9), ST631 infections could be more widespread. 38 Genome comparisons were used to understand the potential relationships of ST631which 39 shares no recent ancestry with and differs substantially …