Cholera Found in Turtles at Wet Market in Covid Epicenter Wuhan

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-hunt-finds-disease-in-turtles-at-food-market

Cholera Found in Turtles at Wet Market in Covid Epicenter Wuhan
Comes after university student diagnosed with the disease
Discovery revives memories of earliest days of pandemic
Bloomberg News
July 15, 2022 at 3:07 a.m. EDT

Wuhan detected cholera-causing bacteria in samples taken from softshell turtles at a food market, sparking comparisons among some Chinese social media users to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Baishazhou wet market has been disinfected and shops related to the turtles closed for three days, according to a statement from local health authorities late on Thursday. No cases of cholera have been found in people who came into contact with the animals, and the strain isn’t related to the case confirmed this week in a Wuhan University student, they said. ..

 

[Mary Wilson]

Vibrio cholerae Colonization of Soft-Shelled Turtles - AMS

30 June 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00713-17

Authors: Jiazheng Wang, Meiying Yan, He Gao, Xin Lu, Biao Kan

ABSTRACT

Vibrio cholerae is an important human pathogen and environmental microflora species that can both propagate in the human intestine and proliferate in zooplankton and aquatic organisms. Cholera is transmitted through food and water. In recent years, outbreaks caused by V. cholerae-contaminated soft-shelled turtles, contaminated mainly with toxigenic serogroup O139, have been frequently reported, posing a new foodborne disease public health problem. In this study, the colonization by toxigenic V. cholerae on the body surfaces and intestines of soft-shelled turtles was explored. Preferred colonization sites on the turtle body surfaces, mainly the carapace and calipash of the dorsal side, were observed for the O139 and O1 strains. Intestinal colonization was also found. The colonization factors of V. cholerae played different roles in the colonization of the soft-shelled turtle's body surface and intestine. Mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin (MSHA) of V. choleraewas necessary for body surface colonization, but no roles were found for toxin-coregulated pili (TCP) or N-acetylglucosamine-binding protein A (GBPA). Both TCP and GBPA play important roles for colonization in the intestine, whereas the deletion of MSHA revealed only a minor colonization-promoting role for this factor. Our study demonstrated that V. cholerae can colonize the surfaces and the intestines of soft-shelled turtles and indicated that the soft-shelled turtles played a role in the transmission of cholera. In addition, this study showed that the soft-shelled turtle has potential value as an animal model in studies of the colonization and environmental adaption mechanisms of V. cholerae in aquatic organisms.

IMPORTANCE Cholera is transmitted through water and food. Soft-shelled turtles contaminated with Vibrio cholerae (commonly the serogroup O139 strains) have caused many foodborne infections and outbreaks in recent years, and they have become a foodborne disease problem. Except for epidemiological investigations, no experimental studies have demonstrated the colonization by V. cholerae on soft-shelled turtles. The present studies will benefit our understanding of the interaction between V. cholerae and the soft-shelled turtle. We demonstrated the colonization by V. cholerae on the soft-shelled turtle's body surface and in the intestine and revealed the different roles of major V. cholerae factors for colonization on the body surface and in the intestine. Our work provides experimental evidence for the role of soft-shelled turtles in cholera transmission. In addition, this study also shows the possibility for the soft-shelled turtle to serve as a new animal model for studying the interaction between V. cholerae and aquatic hosts.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/AEM.00713-17