Isolation and characterization of potentially human pathogenic, cytotoxinproducing Aeromonas strains from retailed seafood in Berlin, Germany

The presence of potentially human pathogenic strains of Aeromonas was investigated in 84 samples of seafood which were purchased from retail traders in Berlin, Germany in spring 2000. A total of 134 Aeromonas strains were isolated on selective [GSP agar and Aeromonas (Ryan) agar] and unselective (standard count agar and enterohaemolysin agar) media from 27 (32.1%) of the samples and were classified as Aeromonas hydrophila (67.9%), A. caviae (26.1%) and A. sobria (6.0%) by biotyping. Thirteen (48.1%) of the 27 positive samples contained more than one species of Aeromonas. Production of haemolysins on enterohaemolysin agar was found with 132 (98.5%) of the strains at 28 degrees C and with 130 strains (97.0%) at 37 degrees C growth temperature. Vero cytotoxins were produced by 99 (73.9%) of the strains when grown at 28 degrees C but only by 24 of the strains (17.9%) at 37 degrees C. The latter strains were identified as A. hydrophila (n=22) and A. sobria (n=2) which came from 17 (20.2%) samples of raw seafood and from ready-to-eat salted herring 'Matjes' products. Cytotoxin-encoding genes for aerolysin (aer) and haemolysin A (hlyA) were investigated by PCR. Aer and hlyA genes were detected in both, strains which produced toxins only at 28 degrees C and strains which produced toxins at 37 degrees C. Our data indicate that raw seafood and ready-to-eat fish products can harbour potential human pathogenic, cytotoxin producing Aeromonas strains