V. parahaemolyticus causes waterborne and foodborne disease such as acute diarrhea. In this study, V. parahaemolyticus isolates from seawater, fish tanks, and distributed fishery products in Jeju were investigated for potential toxin or species-specific genes (tdh, trh, tlh, and toxR) using RT-PCR and their genetic characteristics were analyzed using Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Overall, V. parahaemolyticus of 90 strains (36.7%), including 33 strains from seawater, 8 strains from fish tanks, and 50 strains from fishery products, were isolated from 245 samples. All V. parahaemolyticus strains did not detect the tdh gene, whereas all strains detected tlh or toxR genes. In addition, trh genes were detected in 3 strains from seawater and 1 strain from fishery products. Monthly quantitative testing of seawater revealed that V. parahaemolyticus was positively correlated with water temperature. The 90 strains of V. parahemolyticus obtained in this study showed by gene homology between types, ranging from 64.0–97.3%. Among these, thirteen types showed 100% homology between genes. These results indicate that continuous monitoring is needed to facilitate food poisoning epidemiological investigations because some isolated V. parahaemolyticus strains harbored toxin genes and V. parahaemolyticus strains isolated from seawater, fish tanks, and distributed fishery products showed genetic similarity.

The aim of this study was to determine total mercury and methyl mercury level in fishes (Deepsea Fish, Tuna, Billfish) and fishery products. A total of 101 fishes and 44 fishery products samples collected from commercial market in Gyeonggi-do. Total mercury were analysed by mercury analyzer and methyl mercury were analyzed by gas chromatography with electron capture detector. In the fishes, total mercury was detected in all samples and methylmercury was detected in 92 samples of them. The detection rate of methylmercury was 91.1% in fishes. The mean concentration (mg/kg) of total mercury and methylmercury were 1.968 ± 0.505/0.496 ± 0.057 for Billfish, 0.665 ± 0.091/0.252 ± 0.033 for Deep-sea Fish and 0.577 ± 0.085/0.218 ± 0.025 for Tuna, respectively. The Swordfish contains the highest level of total mercury (1.968 mg/kg) and methylmercury (0.496 mg/kg). In Mabled rockfish, the ratio of methylmercury’s contents about total mercury’s contents was the highest as 66.5%. In case of fishery products, frozens made of 100% of raw material contained the highest level of total mercury and methyl mercury. The weekly intake of total mercury and methylmercury was calculated in 4.72% and 5.24% of Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) respectively. This study showed that the weekly intake of methylmercury from Deep-sea Fish, Tuna and Billfish was less than the PTWI recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives.