Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul;71(1):108-116.
doi: 10.1111/lam.13231. Epub 2019 Nov 4.

Diversity of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens from a freshwater ornamental fish farm

P G Preena  1 , D Arathi  1 , N Sundar Raj  1 , T V Arun Kumar  1 , S Arun Raja  1 , R N Reshma  1 , T Raja Swaminathan  1
Affiliations

Diversity of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens from a freshwater ornamental fish farm

P G Preena et al. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in aquaculture results in antibiotic selection pressure and proliferation of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria. Frequent assessment of antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture environment is inevitable so as to reduce the passage of clinically important AMR from aquatic to other environment. The present study analysed the antimicrobial resistance of pathogens associated with diseased koi carp and goldfish from an ornamental fish farm. Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the recovered isolates from both fishes revealed significant pathogens in aquaculture such as Aeromonas, Edwardsiella tarda, Acinetobacter, Lactococcus, Citrobacter, Enterobacter and Comamonas. Shannon-Wiener diversity of koi isolates (2·359) was found to be higher than that of goldfish (1·864). Antibiotic susceptibility testing using disc diffusion with 47 antibiotics revealed significant resistance pattern of Acinetobacter, Comamonas, Klebsiella and Enterobacter from goldfish and Edwardsiella, Aeromonas, Lactococcus, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter from koi with higher multiple antibiotic resistance indexes (>0·3). The minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics for the major resistant isolates was found to be very high with >256 μg. All the isolates were susceptible to amoxicillin, kanamycin, cefepime, cefexime, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, doripenem, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin, recommending their successful application in the farm. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat faced in aquaculture industry. The current study provides baseline information regarding the antibiotic resistance patterns of diverse pathogens recovered from ornamental koi carp and goldfish. The higher MAR index of pathogens and greater MIC of antibiotics for the resistant isolates highlighted the intense use of antibiotics in aquaculture farm. The potential of the pathogens to exhibit resistance even towards the new generation antibiotics remind the need of prudent use of antibiotics and continuous monitoring and surveillance programmes.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance; aquaculture; diversity; goldfish; koi carp; ornamental fish.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Agersø, Y. and Petersen, A. (2007) The tetracycline resistance determinant Tet 39 and the sulphonamide resistance gene sulII are common among resistant Acinetobacter spp. isolated from integrated fish farms in Thailand. J Antimicrob Chemother 59, 23-27.
    1. Alekshun, M.N. and Levy, S.B. (2007) Molecular mechanisms of antibac- terial multidrug resistance. Cell 128, 1037-1050.
    1. Chen, M.H., Hung, S.W., Shyu, C.L., Lin, C.C., Liu, P.C., Chang, C.H., Shia, W.Y., Cheng, C.F., et al (2012) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis infection in Bester Sturgeon, a cultured hybrid of Huso huso × Acipenser ruthenus, in Taiwan. Res Vet Sci 93, 581-588.
    1. Cízek, A., Dolejská, M., Sochorová, R., Strachotová, K., Piacková, V. and Veselý, T. (2010) Antimicrobial resistance and its genetic determinants in aeromonads isolated in ornamental (koi) carp (Cyprinus carpio koi) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Vet Microbiol 142, 435-439.
    1. Clarke, K.R. and Gorley, R.N. (2015) PRIMER v7: User Manual/Tutorial, PRIMER-E, Plymouth, pp. 296.

Substances