The Circulation of Type F among Humans, Sewage, and (Asari Clams).

is an important pathogen that is responsible for gastroenteritis; the causative agent for the symptoms is enterotoxin (CPE), which is mainly produced by type F . Since shellfishes may gather . in the water environment, this study estimated the potential circulation of type F among humans, sewage, and (asari clams) as a result of sewage pollution. A comparison of the characteristics among the isolates from 86 sewage influents, 36 effluents, 76 asari clams, and 37 humans was conducted. Serotyping, genotyping, and toxin genotyping showed that . with a plasmid IS sequence downstream of was predominant among sewage influents, effluents, humans, and asari clams. Multilocus sequence typing suggested that some isolates from a human, sewage influents, effluents, and asari clams were linked to each other. These results demonstrated that asari clams are the necessary infection sources of responsible for carriers and foodborne diseases, and that these pathogens from humans infected by asari clams can pollute the water environment. It is useful to assess bacteria such as isolates from sewage to estimate the trend of those from the community.