Prevalence and molecular characterization of Vibrio cholerae from fruits and salad vegetables sold in Jakarta, Indonesia, using most probable number and PCR.

OBJECTIVE: Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by Vibrio cholerae, it is usually occurs in developing countries that lack of sanitation. In developing country including Indonesia, awareness importance of sanitation is still low. Unfortunately, research related to the detection of V. cholerae from fruit and vegetables in Indonesia is still rare. In this study, MPN method was used to determine the prevalence of V. cholerae followed by single and multiplex PCR to detect virulence genes, including toxR, ctxA, tcpA, hlyA, ace, ompU, and zot.

RESULTS: We found 3 fruits and 2 vegetables positive for toxR gene. Fruit samples which were showed toxR positive found from East Jakarta while for vegetables, it was recovered from West Jakarta and Central Jakarta. Twenty-three isolates were recovered from toxR positive samples. The result of antibiotic resistance analysis showed that 4.35% of the isolates resistant to gentamicin, streptomycin (17.39%), trimethoprim (52.17%), ciprofloxacin (30.43%), ampicillin (13.04%), nalidixic acid (82.61%), and polymyxin B (91.30%). None of these isolates were resistant to kanamycin. Combination of MPN and Multiplex PCR method can be used to detect the prevalence and characterize the virulence properties of V. cholerae.