A survey of stool culturing practices for Vibrio species at clinical laboratories in Gulf Coast states

Non-cholera Vibrio infections are an important public health problem. Non-c holera Vibrio species usually cause sporadic infections, often in coastal s tates, and have also caused several recent nationwide outbreaks of gastroen teritis in the United States. We report a survey of laboratory stool cultur ing practices for Vibrio among randomly selected clinical laboratories in G ulf Coast states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas). Int erviews conducted with the microbiology supervisors of 201 clinical laborat ories found that 164 (82%) received stool specimens for culture. Of these, 102 (62%) of 164 processed stool specimens on site, and 20 (20%) of these 1 02 laboratories cultured all stool specimens for Vibrio, indicating that at least 34,463 (22%) of 152,797 stool specimens were cultured for Vibrio. Th is survey suggests that despite an increased incidence of non-cholera Vibri o infections in Gulf Coast states, a low percentage of clinical Laboratorie s routinely screen all stool specimens, and fewer than 25% of stool specime ns collected are routinely screened for non-cholera Vibrio.