An ecological study on pathogenic vibrios was done in the aquatic environments of southern coast of Korea during summer in 1995, to investigate the distribution and relationship between pathogenic vibrio and zooplankton. Furthermore, special emphasis ...
An ecological study on pathogenic vibrios was done in the aquatic environments of southern coast of Korea during summer in 1995, to investigate the distribution and relationship between pathogenic vibrio and zooplankton. Furthermore, special emphasis was given to study on the efforts of zooplankton existence on the wintering of Vibrio cholerae in the aquatic region in Korea. During the study period, pathogenic vibrios were isolated from the samples such as V. parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus, V. mimicus, and V. cholerae non O1, but V. cholerae O1 was not detected in any sample submitted in this study. Adsorption ratio of V. parahaemolyticus onto zooplankton was higher than that of E. coli. The efficiency of adsorption was found to be on the concentration of NaCl and other ions found in sea water. For example, adsorption ratio of V. parahaemolyticus were $75\%\;at\;5\%_{\circ}$ of NaCl solution and $55\%$ at same salinity of diluted sea water, but those were decreased as $20\%\;and\;7\%\;at\;15\%_{\circ}$ salinity of NaCl solution and diluted sea water, respectively. In addition, survival period of pathogenic vibrio was extended in the presence of live copepods at $25^{\circ}C$, but zooplankton existence has no significant effect on the survival rate at $5^{\circ}C$ in closed microcosm and also microalgae and dead copepods do not affect on the survival of V. parahaemolyticus. According to these experimental results, zooplankton has positive effects on the growth and survival rate of pathogenic vibrios in sea water during the summer season, but copepods have no significant effects on the growth and survival rate of them in winter season in Korea. Finally, authors suggest that V. cholerae is not able to over winter with zooplankton in adjacent sea water in Korea.