The following message is a continuation on the discussion of
luminescent bacteria from Pat Sado (e-mail: psado@ora.fda.gov)
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Seafood lovers:
I copied and pasted the original e-mail from Dr. Skonberg at the end of
this e-mail. Thanks to Dr. Skonberg I was able to contact her colleague.
Ms. Hanson very kindly mailed the remains of her seafood salad to me in
Bothell, Wash. from Maine. The product no longer glowed when I rec'd it,
but was definitely decomposed as evidenced by the stench emanating from
the container.
I was able to resusitate the luminescent bacteria. Eventually I was able
to get isolated colonies and thru various biochemicals determine that they
are Photobacterium phosphoreum. I also analyzed the remains of the
seafood salad for Listeria sp., Vibrio sp., and Salmonella. I did not
isolate any of these pathogens.
Another "glowing" fish incidence:
Tuesday (Feb. 23, 1999) I rec'd a call from the Indian Health Service in
Portland, Oregon. Some fishermen were shocked to see their fish glowing in
the dark. Unfortunately the fishermen disposed of their "glowing" fish
before I was able to obtain some of it for analysis.
Pat
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From: "Denise Skonberg"
Subject: fluorescent surimi
Date: Monday, January 25, 1999 at 3:21:06 pm EST
A colleague had an unopened package of imitation crab surimi that he
stored in his garage refrigerator. When he went out to get it yesterday he
noticed a bright blue fluorescence in the package, which was especially
noticable when the package was shaken. At that point he was
(understandably) not too interested in eating the surimi. Any ideas on
what microbes may have caused this? Are any of you familiar with this
occurrence in surimi?
Thanks for your input
Denise
Dr. Denise Skonberg
University of Maine