Isolation and identification of Vibrio species in the Rio Bravo/Grande and water bodies from Reynosa, Tamaulipas

The Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) adjoins various states in the Mexican region and has a great importance in water distribution in the northeast Tamaulipas (Mexico). In this work 161 strains were isolated, identified and characterized from the water samples taken from the flow of the Rio Bravo and the two inner canals that cover Reynosa city. The strains were identified as Vibrio cholerae (745%), Vibrio spp. (12%) and Vibrio mimicus (06%). Furthermore, the detected virulence genes in the V. cholerae strains, were the hlyA, ompU, tcpA, toxR genes in 783, 625, 158 and 908% respectively. Only the ompU
and vmh genes were detected in the V. mimicus strain. These results indicate the presence of multi-toxigenic V. cholerae strains in the Rio Bravo/Grande and in the water bodies from Reynosa city, which could represent a risk for the exposed population.