Food-Borne Bacteria Associated with Seafoods: A Brief Review

Abstract

Consumption of contaminated seafoods is a major cause of death and hospitalization particularly in poor and developing countries. As with other food types, seafoods are also not free of food-borne pathogens and several risk factors are associated with its consumption. Regarding seafoods, there are regulatory hygienic alerts in importing countries. This paper briefly reviews the occurrence of seafood-borne diseases and describes the most important bacterial causes of these infections. Also, major bacterial threats, the route of infection, and food safety concerns associated with seafoods consumption are explained. Several bacterial pathogens, like Vibrio spp., Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium botulinum, Shigella spp., and Aeromonas spp. are considered as microbiological hazards for seafoods. These bacteria can contaminate seafood products anytime from farm to table. Some effective methods should be adopted for control and prevention of bacterial hazards in fish industry. Maintaining the microbiological water quality of domestic capture, post-harvest care, proper hygiene, etc. can minimize the bacterial hazards. Food-borne intoxications can be controlled by the proper refrigeration of seafoods and the continuous monitoring of the chill chain during the entire production process right up to consumption. Other ways to prevent food-borne outbreaks due to consumptions of seafoods are training of the consumers about correct handling of food, proper preparation, and storage of seafoods.

Antimicrobial Blue Light versus Pathogenic Bacteria: Mechanism, Application in the Food Industry, Hurdle Technologies and Potential Resistance

“…Vibrio spp. is ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems, with infections in humans commonly associated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus , Vibrio vulnificus and V. cholerae [ 57 , 61 , 62 ]. Other bacteria, such as Salmonella spp.…”

Vibriosis and its impact on microbiological food safety

“…Although bacteria of the Vibrio genus are easily destroyed by cooking, they are important risk factors for humans, as agents of diseases transmitted especially by raw foods of marine origin (Ali et al, 2020).…”

“…Among the main pathogenic bacteria that can be transmitted by this group of food are Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio spp. (Baptista et al, 2020a;Ali et al, 2020;Durmuş, 2019).…”

“…parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus are the main pathogenic species for humans and infections caused by these bacteria, vibrioses, can range from simple gastroenteritis to cases of septicemia. Such infectious conditions can be associated with both the consumption of water and contaminated food, especially by marine foods consumed raw (Ali et al, 2020).…”

Outbreak of seafood‐related food poisoning from undetectable Vibrio parahaemolyticus‐like pathogen, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, December 2020

“…Seafood is often the source of foodborne illness, and outbreaks from eating contaminated seafood are common [7][8][9]. Vibrio organisms, particularly Vibrio parahaemolyticus are the most common pathogen of seafood-related food poisoning [10] and can contaminate seafood products anytime from farm to table.…”