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Antimicrobial Resistance analysis of Pathogenic Bacteria Isolated from Freshwater Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Cultured in Kerala, India

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Abstract

Aquaculture of popular freshwater species, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), accounts for around 71% of the total global tilapia production. Frequent use of antibiotics for treating bacterial infections in tilapia leads to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. To mitigate the issue, proper evaluation methods and control strategies have to be implemented. This study was aimed to analyze the antimicrobial resistance of bacterial isolates from the infected Nile tilapia cultured in freshwater. The recovered isolates were identified as Pseudomonas entomophila, Edwardsiella tarda, Comamonas sp, Delftia tsuruhatensis, Aeromonas dhakensis, A. sobria, A. hydrophila, A. lacus, Plesiomonas shigelloides and Vogesella perlucida through phenotypic and genotypic analyses. Using Primer-E software, Shannon Wiener diversity index of the isolates was determined as H’ (loge) = 2.58. Antibiotic susceptibility test of the recovered strains through disk diffusion using 47 antibiotics, showed an elevated resistance pattern for Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas entomophila and Comamonas with higher multiple antibiotic resistance indexes (MAR index > 0.3). The minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics was > 256 mcg/ml for most of the resistant isolates. Meanwhile, all the recovered isolates were susceptible to amikacin, aztreonam, kanamycin, cefalexin, cefotaxime, levofloxacin, norfloxacin, piperacillin, and polymyxin-B.

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Acknowledgements

The corresponding author thanks the Department of Science and Technology (SERB) for providing National Postdoctoral Research fellowship (PDF/2017/000378) and Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow for the support. We are also grateful to Dr. V.J. Rejish Kumar, Department of Aquaculture, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies for the sincere proofreading and English editing support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre of ICAR-NBFGR, CMFRI Campus, P.O. Number 1603, Kochi, 682018, India

    P. G. Preena, Arathi Dharmaratnam & T. Raja Swaminathan

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  1. P. G. Preena
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  2. Arathi Dharmaratnam
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  3. T. Raja Swaminathan
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Contributions

Following contributions had been done by the authors: Conceived of or designed study: PGP and TRS. Performed research: PGP and AD. Analyzed data: PGP and AD. Manuscript draft: PGP.

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Correspondence to P. G. Preena.

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Ethical Approval

All the experimental challenge procedures in this study (Proposal number: NBFGR/IAEC/2019/0014) were evaluated and approved by Institute Animal ethics Committee (IAEC) of ICAR National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR) (CPCESA Registration No: 909/GO/Re/S/05/CPCSEA dated 09.09.2005 and CPCSEA Ref file No. 25/111/2014-CPCESA dated 05th December 2018) vide Approval Number G/IAEC/2019/1 dated 04th October 2019.

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Preena, P.G., Dharmaratnam, A. & Swaminathan, T.R. Antimicrobial Resistance analysis of Pathogenic Bacteria Isolated from Freshwater Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Cultured in Kerala, India. Curr Microbiol 77, 3278–3287 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02158-1

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