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Pandemic Serotypes of Vibrio cholerae Isolated from Ships’ Ballast Tanks and Coastal Waters: Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Genes (tcpA and ctxA)

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

There is concern that ships’ ballasting operations may disseminate Vibrio cholerae to ports throughout the world. Given evidence that the bacterium is indeed transported by ships, we isolated pandemic serotypes O1 and O139 from ballast tanks and characterized them with respect to antibiotic resistance and virulence genes ctxA and tcpA. We carried out concurrent studies with V. cholerae isolated from coastal waters. Of 284 isolates, 30 were serotype O1 and 59 were serotype O139. These serotypes were overrepresented in ballast tanks relative to the coastal waters sampled. All locations, whether coastal waters or ballast tanks, yielded samples from which serotype O1, O139, or both were isolated. There were three groups among the 62 isolates for which antibiotic characterization was conclusive: those exhibiting β-lactamase activity and resistance to at least one of the 12 antibiotics tested; those negative for β-lactamase but having antibiotic resistance; those negative for β-lactamase and registering no antibiotic resistance. When present, antibiotic resistance in nearly all cases was to ampicillin; resistance to multiple antibiotics was uncommon. PCR assays revealed that none of the isolates contained the ctxA gene and only two isolates, one O139 and one O1, contained the tcpA gene; both isolates originated from ballast water. These results support the bacteriological regulations proposed by the International Maritime Association for discharged ballast water.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful for the courtesy of many ship Captains, Chief Officers, and crew members who helped us collect samples, to Captain Phil Jenkins for his invaluable tutelage in the operations of ballast tanks, and those who assisted with collection of ballast-tank samples, including Martina Doblin, Lisa Drake, Stefan Heinemann, Leslie Kampschmidt, Kathy Moreira, and colleagues from the University of Windsor and NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory. We appreciate previous comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript by Alexander Bochdansky, Andrew Gordon, and Martha Stokes. Erin Lipp, Anwar Hug, and Rita Colwell kindly supplied RC-series reference cultures. Support for this work was provided in part by the National Sea Grant College Program and the multi-institutional Great Lakes NOBOB Project funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Coast Guard. The project was co-managed by the Cooperative Institute of Limnology and Ecosystems Research and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and sponsored under cooperative agreement NA17RJ1225 from the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Fred C. Dobbs, Amanda L. Goodrich & Frank K. Thomson III

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Wayne Hynes

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  1. Fred C. Dobbs
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  2. Amanda L. Goodrich
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  3. Frank K. Thomson III
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  4. Wayne Hynes
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Correspondence to Fred C. Dobbs.

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Dobbs, F.C., Goodrich, A.L., Thomson, F.K. et al. Pandemic Serotypes of Vibrio cholerae Isolated from Ships’ Ballast Tanks and Coastal Waters: Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Genes (tcpA and ctxA). Microb Ecol 65, 969–974 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0182-7

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