Antibiotic Resistance in Aquaculture: Challenges, Trends Analysis, and Alternative Approaches

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance in aquaculture has emerged as a global crisis, representing a serious threat to the health of aquatic animals, environment, and human. The extensive use of antibiotics in aquaculture has led to rapid development of resistant bacterial strains, resulting in environmental contamination and the dissemination of resistant genes. Understanding of the research trends, key contributors, and thematic evolution of this field is essential for guiding future studies and policy interventions. The study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on antibiotic resistance development in aquaculture, identifying key areas of research, leading contributors, emerging challenges, and alternative solutions. Data were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database covering the period from 2000 to 2025. A systematic search strategy was employed, utilizing terms including "antibiotic resistance" AND "bacteria," AND "aquaculture". Relevant publications were extracted from the WoS using these keywords. R-tool was then used to analyze the obtained metadata including keywords, citation patterns, and co-authored country. The analysis revealed a remarkable increase in publications over the past 25 years, with key contributions from China, India, and the USA. The most significant articles focused on the presence of multidrug resistant bacteria in the aquatic environments and, antibiotic-resistant genes, and horizontal gene transfer. Probiotics are the alternative solution to overcome the antibiotic resistance and enhance aquaculture sustainability. Future research should focus on the interdisciplinary collaboration, novel antimicrobial alternatives, and global monitoring approaches.

Keywords: R software; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); aquaculture; bibliometric analysis; research trends.

Figure 1

Workflow of ABA documents’ screening and processing on the obtained metadata from web of science (WoS) database (2000–2025). ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 2

Overview of bibliometric indicators for published ABA documents from 2000 to 2025. Metrics include the number of sources, papers, authorship patterns, citations, international collaboration, and keyword diversity. ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 3

Annual growth of scientific publications of ABA documents based on the WoS database. The correlation coefficient (R²) of the exponential curve between 2000 and 2025 was 0.925. ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 4

The map illustrates international collaboration patterns based on co-authorship in publications related to antibiotic resistance in aquaculture (2000–2025). Countries are color-coded by publication output, with darker shades indicative of higher productivity. The connecting lines represent collaborative links between countries, and their thickness corresponds to the intensity of co-authorship.

Figure 5

The top 10 most cited countries on ABA documents (2000–2025) based on WoS. ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 6

Keyword Co-occurrence Network Based on Author Keywords: The size of each node represents the frequency keyword occurrence. Different colors indicate clusters of closely related keywords for ABA documents based on WoS database (2000–2025). ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 7

The most frequently used in keywords on ABA documents over five-consecutive years, (2000–2025). ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”. The red box shows the keyword “genes”. It illustrates the substantial increase in usage over the years.

Figure 8

Trend Analysis based on scientific terms of ABA documents (2000–2025). Each dot represents a specific term’s appearance in the literature, and the dot’s size indicates the term’s frequency of occurrence. The horizontal lines show the active period for each term. ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 9

The conceptual structure mapping generated by multiple correspondence analysis of ABA documents based on WoS database (2000–2025). ABA: “antibiotic resistance”, “bacteria”, and “aquaculture”.

Figure 10

Thematic map of research clusters generated by multiple correspondence analysis of ABA documents based on WoS database 2000–2025. ABA: antibiotic resistance, bacteria, and aquaculture.