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Abstract
Reports from state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the annual number of reported human vibriosis cases in New England has increased in the past decade. Concurrently, there has been a shift in both the spatial distribution and seasonal detection of Vibrio spp. throughout the region based on limited monitoring data. To determine environmental factors that may underlie these emerging conditions, this study focuses on a long-term database of Vibrio parahaemolyticus concentrations in oyster samples generated from data collected from the Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire over a period of seven consecutive years. Oyster samples from two distinct sites were analyzed for V. parahaemolyticus abundance, noting significant relationships with various biotic and abiotic factors measured during the same period of study. We developed a predictive modeling tool capable of estimating the likelihood of V. parahaemolyticus presence in coastal New Hampshire oysters. Results show that the inclusion of chlorophyll a concentration to an empirical model otherwise employing only temperature and salinity variables, offers improved predictive capability for modeling the likelihood of V. parahaemolyticus in the Great Bay Estuary.
Publication Date
5-4-2016
Publisher
PLOS
Journal Title
PLOS One
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Urquhart EA, Jones SH, Yu JW, Schuster BM, Marcinkiewicz AL, Whistler CA, et al. (2016) Environmental Conditions Associated with Elevated Vibrio parahaemolyticus Concentrations in Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire. PLoS ONE 11(5): e0155018. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155018
Rights
© 2016 Urquhart et al.
Comments
This is an Open Access article published by PLOS in PLOS One in 2016, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155018