New Vibrio Strain Traced to Apalachicola

At Tuesday morning's meeting of the Franklin County Commission, Kevin Begos, director of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force told the commission that three cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus have been traced back to Apalachicola Bay oysters over the last month.

Begos said that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not issued a warning because the cases are not an outbreak. "It's just a case here and a case there," he said.

This strain of vibrio, new to Gulf waters, is not considered deadly, like vibrio vulnificus, but can cause illness in those who consume affected raw oysters.
"This just gives them more ammunition," said Begos. "I think they're gearing up to shut down the bay for a part of the summer next year. This also ties into the ‘or cooking only' rule."

Under the rule in question, oysters that spend more than five hours unrefrigerated during the summer season could not be sold for raw consumption.

On July 8 the FDA sent a letter to the sent a letter to the Interstate Seafood Sanitation council reversing their decision to allow some summer harvested oysters to be marketed with a "for cooking only" label as a control measure for Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP) under Proposal 07-202.

Since many states have already promoted the specialty labeling, the FDA will encourage state not to use the "for cooking only" designation over the next 10 months. The FDA expects states to phase out the designation completely by June 20, 2009.

"It's always tough to challenge them (FDA) but on this it may be possible because they are going against their own rules. The problem is that the big food producers have already said they're not going to accept anything labeled for cooking only," Begos said.

Commissioner Bevin Putnal said, "We can probably deal with it if they shut us down for part of the summer. Until a few years ago the bay was shut down for three months out of the year, but if it's more than three months that will be bad."

Begos said, "If we know its coming we can plan and maybe come up with some kind of alternative employment plan."