The incidence of vibrio parahaemolyticus in raw vegetables at local wet markets and supermarkets in Kuching, Sarawak

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a foodborne pathogen that is regularly associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. The most frequent symptom of V. parahdternolvticus infection is gastroenteritis. Recently, this pathogen was also discovered in raw vegetable samples in Peninsular Malaysia. Thus, the aim of this study is to isolate and detect V. parahaemolyricus in raw veuzetables. The samples which consisted of carrot, four-winged bean, cabbage and bean sprout were purchased from two wet markets and two supermarkets in Kuching, Sarawak. In this study, alkaline peptone water (APW) was used as the enrichment medium. The combination of two types of selective agar, TCBS and CHROMagar Vibrjo rM was successfully applied to isolate the bacteria, After a series of biochemical tests, only 2 out of the 80 samples were positive for the presence of V. parahaemolyricus. Although the percentage of V. parahaemolylicus prevalence was low (2.5%), the results highlighted the fact that raw vegetables could also be contaminated With V. parahaemo/yticií$