Presence of Vibrio cholerae in phytoplankton

Vibro cholerae is a Gram negative and rod shaped bacterium. It is naturally found in the estuarine ecosystem, coastal areas and freshwater environments. V. cholerae is the causative agent of cholera and it plays a major public health hazard. V. cholerae infection usually transmitted via consuming contaminated seafood or water. However, there was study in Bangladesh stated that aquatic environment such phytoplankton acts a crucial role in the occurrence and survival of Vibrio spp. either in water or in seafood like oysters. Therefore, this study was conducted to provide new information on occurrence of V. cholerae from phytoplankton samples in selected estuaries in Santubong and Samariang, Sarawak. This study was concern to investigate the association between physical parameter such as pH, temperature and salinity and the presence of V. cholerae in phytoplankton. Besides, this research also determines to detect the presence of V. cholerae via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by using primer virulence cholera enterotoxin subunit A (ctxA) gene. A total of 10 plankton samples from this two estuaries selected were collected from November 2017 until January 2018. The result shown that there was no positive result of presence of V. cholerae for all phytoplankton samples collected in both Santubong and Samariang estuaries via PCR assay. Nevertheless, further researches on the presence Vibrio spp. in phytoplankton still need to be monitor and frequently conducted according to the monsoon seasonal in Malaysia