Detection of Vibrionaceae in mussels and in their seawater growing area

Aims: The seasonal trend and frequency of detection of Vibrionaceae in seaw ater samples and in molluscs collected in the Adriatic Sea was measured. Methods and Results: Over a 2-year period, 726 bacterial strains were isola ted, of which 46.9% belonged to the Vibrio genus, 29.8% to the Aeromonas ge nus and the remaining 23.3% was made up of the Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Pasteurella, Agrobacterium and Ochrobacterium genera. Many of the isolated strains were shown to produce toxins. Conclusions: The Vibrio genus, which was isolated more often than the other genera, was particularly prevalent in summer (54.4% of the total number of bacteria isolated during this season), while it was scarce in the winter m onths.