Heat Processing of Oysters Naturally Contaminated with Vibrio cholerae Serotype 01.

Pathogenic Vibrio cholerae 0-Group 1 survived for more than 3 weeks in artificial sea water with little loss in viability. Live oysters placed in such contaminated, artificial sea water took up but did not concentrate V. cholerae . Heat treatments provided by an in-can pasteurization process and by preparation of naturally contaminated oysters according to common recipes effectively reduced the numbers of V. cholerae by 5 logs/g.