Outbreak dynamics of foodborne pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus over a seventeen year period implies hidden reservoirs

作者：Yang, Chao; Li, Yinghui; Jiang, Min; Wang, Lei; Jiang, Yixiang; Hu, Lulu; Shi, Xiaolu; He, Lianhua; Cai, Rui; Wu, Shuang; Qiu, Yaqun; Lu, Linying; Zuo, Le; Chen, Qiongcheng; Wu, Yarong; Martinez-Urtaza, Jaime; Wan, Chengsong; Yang, Ruifu^*; Cui, Yujun^*; Hu, Qinghua^*

来源：Nature Microbiology, 2022, 7(8): 1221-+.

DOI：10.1038/s41564-022-01182-0

• LISTERIOSIS OUTBREAK
• EPIDEMIOLOGY
• SURVEILLANCE
• MARYLAND

Controlling foodborne diseases requires robust outbreak detection and a comprehensive understanding of outbreak dynamics. Here, by integrating large-scale phylogenomic analysis of 3,642 isolates and epidemiological data, we performed 'data-driven' outbreak detection and described the long-term outbreak dynamics of the leading seafood-associated pathogen, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, in Shenzhen, China, over a 17-year period. Contradictory to the widely accepted notion that sporadic patients and independent point-source outbreaks dominated foodborne infections, we found that 71% of isolates from patients grouped into within-1-month clusters that differed by <= 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms, indicating putative outbreaks. Furthermore, we showed that despite the long time spans between clusters, 70% of them were genomically closely related and were inferred to arise from a small number of common sources, which provides evidence that hidden persistent reservoirs generated most of the outbreaks rather than independent point-sources. Phylogeographical analysis further revealed the geographical heterogeneity of outbreaks and identified a coastal district as the potential hotspot of outbreaks and as the hub and major source of cross-district spread events. Our findings provide a comprehensive picture of the long-term spatiotemporal dynamics of foodborne outbreaks and present a different perspective on the major source of foodborne infections, which will inform the design of future disease control strategies. @@@ Long-term spatiotemporal dynamics of foodborne pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus outbreaks suggests hidden reservoirs as source of infections.

• 单位
  中国科学院; 南方医科大学