LABORATORY EVALUATION ON PATHOGENIC POTENTIALITIES OF VIBRIO-FURNISSII

Sixteen strains of Vibrio furnissii recovered from 16 Brazilian patien ts with diarrhea were screened for virulence-associated factors. All s trains were non-invasive, non-fimbriated, and did not produce either e nterotoxins or cholera-like toxin. In contrast, most were hemolytic on blood agar and their broth-culture supernatants damaged HeLa cell mon olayers. These cytolysins, as accepted for other enteropathogenic memb ers of the family Vibrionaceae, might be determinants of pathogenicity in V. furnissii-mediated enteritis.