Occurrence of Vibrio cholerae Non 01 and Their Dispersion Phenomena in the Coastal Waters

Occurrence of Vibrio cholerae non 01 and their dispersion in the coastal waters of Mangalore for three seasons were studied. The near-shore stations recorded comparatively higher incidence of these bacteria while places with a depth of 10m, 2 to 3 kilometres away from the shore, showed a gradual diminishing trend and at the offshore stations, 5 to 6 kilo metres away from the shore, the abundance of the organism was very low. Environmental parameters like salinity, temperature and pH and their correlation with the occurrence of this species are discussed. Key words: Vibrio cholerae Non 01, Mangalore coast, temperature, dispersion, pH, salinity Vibrio cholerae non 01 is a non aggluti-nating group of Vibrios, which occur as a part of the autochthonous flora in estuarine and marine environment (Colwell, 1984). They are rod shaped, non spore forming, motile and Gram negative organisms and are pathologically significant. They have been implicated in diarrhoea as well as systemic infections in human beings (Colwell &amp