Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century

Making Raw Oysters Safe for the Masses

A new oyster-purification system that an AU research team led by AAES fisheries microbiologist Cova Arias has developed is still in the testing stages, but it could prove highly effective in ensuring that raw Gulf oysters are safe to eat.

The method, being put to the test at the AU Sea Lab in Dauphin Island, aims to eliminate the potentially fatal bacterium Vibrio vulnificus from raw oysters by using a novel depuration, or cleansing, system in which seawater
piped in from the Gulf and treated with UV filters to kill the naturally occurring V. vulnificus flows into and out of tanks containing contaminated oysters.

Other depuration apparatuses exist, but unlike Arias’ flow-through technique, they all recirculate water through the tanks.

V. vulnificus can be in all seawater—and oysters—but it thrives in the high-temperature, low-salinty
Gulf of Mexico, and consumer fears that raw Gulf oysters are a health risk stifle demand and price. Arias is optimistic the provisionally patented flow-through system will reduce the bacteria to undectable levels and ultimately give Alabama and Gulf oysters a competitive edge.