Isolation and characterization of two hemolytic phenotypes of Vibrio damsela associated with a fatal wound infection

Two hemolytic phenotypes of Vibrio damsela, isolated from the tissue of a patient with a fatal wound infection, were characterized. The patient had underlying disease, and the wound was associated with an injury inflicted during the handling of a catfish. The phenotypes were morphologically and biochemically similar except for their lecithinase, lipase, and hemolytic activities. When grown on rabbit blood agar, one phenotype (LZ) produced a large zone of hemolysis (10 mm) around the colony, whereas the other type (SZ) produced only a small zone (1 to 2 mm). On sheep blood agar, the differences in hemolytic activity were more subtle. By a modified CAMP test in which V. damsela was streaked perpendicularly to Staphylococcus aureus, it was determined that a factor elaborated by the LZ phenotype (but not the SZ phenotype) protected sheep erythrocytes from the hemolysis normally caused by S. aureus toxins. Cell-free filtrates of broth cultures of each phenotype had the same effects on erythrocytes as did the organisms themselves.