en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">Background:</span></span></span></b> <i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">V</span></span></span></i><i><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">ibrio</span></span></i><i><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt"> parahaemolyticus</span></span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt"> is the most common cause of human infections of all members of the <i>Vibrio</i> genus, accounting for between 31 and 50% of the food poisoning cases</span></span></span><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">Consumption of food contaminated with <i>V. parahaemolyticus</i> can cause severe digestive infection with symptoms of watery or bloody diarrhoea, stomach pain, vomiting, fever, and dehydration.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">The objective of the study was to establish the reliability of </span></span></span><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">M</span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">atrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time оf Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for identifying <i>V. parahaemolyticus</i> isolated from seafood marketed for human consumption<i>.</i></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:115%">Methods:</span></span></b> <span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%">A hundred and eighty seafood samples including mussels (<i>Mytilus galloprovincialis</i>), veined rapa whelks (<i>Rapana venosа</i>), bluefish (<i>Pomatomus saltatrix</i>), horse mackerel (<i>Trachurus mediterraneus</i>), gilthead seabream (<i>Sparus aurata</i>), sea bass (<i>Dicentrarchus labrax</i>), Atlantic salmon (<i>Salmo salar</i>), whiteleg shrimp (<i>Litopenaeus vannamei</i>), Argentine shortfin squid (<i>Illex argentinus</i>), and oysters (<i>Ostreidae</i>) were tested by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and MALDI-TOF MS for the presence of <i>V. parahaemolyticus.</i></span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.2pt">Results: </span></span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:-.2pt">Of the tested 103 isolates, 44 (43%) samples were identified as <i>V. parahaemolyticus</i> by PCR, while 41 (40%) samples were confirmed as <i>V. parahaemolyticus</i> by MALDI-TOF MS. The PCR analysis using non-parametric <i>t</i>-test for comparison of the proportions confirmed 93% of the results obtained by MALDI-TOF MS. </span></span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:107%"><b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:107%">Conclusion:</span></span></b> <span lang="EN-GB"><span style="line-height:107%">MALDI-TOF MS showed high discriminative capacity and can be used for high reliability fast identification of <i>V. parahaemolyticus </i>in seafood samples.</span></span><br> <br> <b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:107%">DOI:</span></span></b><span lang="BG"><span style="line-height:107%"> 10.18502/jfqhc.10.3.13644</span></span></span></span></span></div> Vibrio Parahaemolyticus, Seafood, Food Safety, Polymerase Chain Reaction 135 141 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1556-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 R. Fasulkova rumyana.fasulkova@trakia-uni.bg 0000-0003-1989-3868 Yes Department of Food Quality and Safety, and Veterinary Legislation, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria P. Orozova No National Diagnostic Research Veterinary Medical Institute, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria D. Stratev No Department of Food Quality and Safety, and Veterinary Legislation, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria