Serological and Biochemical Based Identification of Vibrio Cholerae Isolated from Diarrheal Patients of Balochistan

Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease is a major public health problem in many developing countries including Pakistan. Vibrio cholerae is a causative agent of cholera disease. Over 200 serogroups of V. cholerae have been identified, but only O1 and O139 cause cholera epidemics. Present study was design to assess the routine laboratory diagnosis of V. cholerae strains by using biochemical and compared them with the serological identification (multi-serogroups or serotype) of V. cholerae. Total 1776 samples were collected from suspected cholera patients at different hospitals of the Balochistan from 2018 to 2020. All isolates were examined and identified on the basis of colony characters on thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose agar. Suspected colonies were subjected to gram staining, biochemical analysis and serological identification. Among the total samples (n=132;7.43%) were positive V. cholerae from stool samples, futher identification was done through culture characteristic, microscopic examination and biochemical tests. While (n=121;91.6%) confirmed by serotyping using polyvalent antisera. All isolates were serogroup O1 ogawa. However, remaining (n=11; 8.3%) isolates were non-O1/non-O139 serogroups as they did not agglutinate with the polyvalent Inaba and Ogawa antisera and there were no isolates agglutinated with antisera O139 during this study. It is concluded that fecal specimens suspected for V. cholerae O1 and/or O139 should be confirmed by using traditional culture-based methods suitable for the isolation and identification of V. cholerae.