Major achievements in SEABAC

Seafood: Enhanced assessment of bacterial associated contamination

Major achievements in 2005

Primer and probe sets for V. parahaemolyticus for use in SyBr Green and TaqMan PCR assays have been developed and tested for specificity against conventional PCR methods. The assays are undergoing further development and are being validated using spiked seawater samples and seafood matrices. Standard procedures for a direct plating hybridization method have been produced and are being further evaluated using characterised Vibrios strains from a bank developed during the project. Pulse field gel electrophoresis methods for pathogenic vibrios have been developed within the project and have been used to produce a number of fingerprints of vibrio isolates to determine clonal relationships with significant clinical strains. As result of the work undertaken so far in the project approaches have been made to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to start a new work item on standard methods for pathogenic vibrios. ISO have agreed on the basis of the work that this is a suitable work area and a paper outlining the proposal is being developed by the project leader and project partners.

Projectleader SEABAC

Dr. Rachel Rangdale

CEFAS, United Kingdom