Of the approximately 76 million cases of foodborne infection reported each year in the United States, 10-19% are seafood infections. In the United States, approximately 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths are associated each year to foodborne infections. It should be noted that in the United States, consumption of seafood has steadily increased in recent decades, from an average of 4.5 kg per person in 1960 to 7 kg in 2002. Over 63, 5 million tonnes of seafood are caught and consumed each year.

The etiology of infections associated with seafood consumption, according to the analysis of all households in New York over a period of 15 years, was confirmed with 44% of households, 47% of households whose etiology has confirmed were due to viruses, 9% to bacteria and 44% to chemical agents.

Three types of pathological processes can occur in relation to the use of seafood: allergic, toxic and infectious. Seafood is a freshwater or marine animal, including fish and crustaceans. Crustaceans include molluscs, such as oysters, mussels, dolls and other marine molluscs, as well as the crustaceans themselves - crab and shrimp. Fish is less often associated with infectious diseases because it is generally eaten after quality heat treatment. Crustaceans are generally sold and eaten raw or partially processed. In addition, molluscs are natural food filters that receive nutrition by filtering several liters of water per day. During this process, they can concentrate pathogens in their tissues in large quantities. Oysters are capable of concentrating fecal coliform bacteria more than four times the surrounding aquatic environment. This process is not the only mechanism of accumulation of pathogenic viruses and bacteria.

Most of the infectious diarrhea associated with eating seafood is caused by viruses belonging to the Calciviridae family (Norovirus and Sapporo viruses) ), as well as hepatitis A.

Bacterial pathogens that cause infections associated with eating seafood include vibrios (V.parahaemolyticus, V.vulnificus, V..cholerae ), salmonella (S.enteritidis), Aeromonas hydrophila, Plesiomonas shigelloides, L.monocytogenes, C. botulinum, less commonly Campylobacter (C.jejuni, C.coli, C.fetus) and Streptococcus group A.

The factor most closely associated with the development of the infection is the consumption of raw or semi-prepared seafood. People who have previously suffered from illnesses, especially liver disease, are most susceptible to infections.