Isolation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from the Processed Meat of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs

A method for the recovery ofVibrio parahaemolyticus from seafoods is described. By this procedure, a total of 56 biochemically positive cultures ofV. parahaemolyticus were recovered from market samples of Chesapeake Bay processed blue crab (cooked, picked, packed, and refrigerated meat). All of the isolates were tested serologically, and 22 strains were serotyped according to the schema of Sakazaki as follows: K3, K5, K28, K31, K36, K37, K39, K43, and K44. These results indicate the broad distribution of these specific serotypes in a seafood harvested from the Chesapeake Bay.