PATHOGENIC BACTERIA GROWING IN GULF WATER: VIBRIO

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This is a rather lengthy article, snipped for space. It raises some serious questions about pathogenic bacteria growing in the Gulf. It's been found on the oil droplets, so it's in the water.

Some bac­te­ria in the Gulf of Mex­ico love eat­ing oil as much as they like infect­ing humans.

A close rel­a­tive of the bac­te­ria infa­mous for seafood con­t­a­m­i­na­tions that often lead to fatal dis­ease, the microbe Vib­rio para­haemolyti­cus, is com­mon in warm coastal waters like the Gulf. The long comma-shaped bac­te­ria, slurped down with raw oys­ters, brings twist­ing cramps and nau­sea to 4,500 Amer­i­can shell­fish afi­ciona­dos each year.

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One of the more press­ing ques­tions involves Vib­rios, which, until the oil spill, were one of the pri­mary threats to the region’s vital shell­fish busi­ness. While para­haemolyti­cus rarely causes seri­ous dis­ease, another Vib­rio species, vul­nifi­cus, kills dozens of Amer­i­cans each year, largely through seafood con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. The dis­ease, only recently dis­cov­ered, has caused fierce debate between health offi­cials and local Gulf politi­cians over raw oys­ters, the pri­mary car­ri­ers of the disease.

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But unlike some of its finicky peers, V. para­haemolyti­cus has a deep thirst for crude oil. “You can feed it exclu­sively oil,” and it will thrive, said Jay Grimes, marine micro­bi­ol­o­gist at the Uni­ver­sity of South­ern Mississippi.

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So far, hard evi­dence is scant. Grimes recently exam­ined an oiled water sam­ple taken by the research ship Pel­i­can. The oil, likely exposed to dis­per­sant, was finely divided. Using gene-staining tech­nol­ogy, Grimes dis­cov­ered sev­eral microbes attached to the droplet. Now glow­ing blue, they had been gorg­ing. At least one was a Vib­rio.

Last Edited by Vi on 08/11/2010 09:31 AM