Antibiotic Resistance in the Finfish Aquaculture Industry: A Review

Abstract

Significant challenges to worldwide sustainable food production continue to arise from environmental change and consistent population growth. In order to meet increasing demand, fish production industries are encouraged to maintain high growth densities and to rely on antibiotic intervention throughout all stages of development. The inappropriate administering of antibiotics over time introduces selective pressure, allowing the survival of resistant bacterial strains through adaptive pathways involving transferable nucleotide sequences (i.e., plasmids). This is one of the essential mechanisms of antibiotic resistance development in food production systems. This review article focuses on the main international regulations and governing the administering of antibiotics in finfish husbandry and summarizes recent data regarding the distribution of bacterial resistance in the finfish aquaculture food production chain. The second part of this review examines promising alternative approaches to finfish production, sustainable farming techniques, and vaccination that circumvents excessive antibiotic use, including new animal welfare measures. Then, we reflect on recent adaptations to increasingly interdisciplinary perspectives in the field and their greater alignment with the One Health initiative.

The Use of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in Veterinary Medicine, a Complex Phenomenon: A Narrative Review

“…In general, the most frequently prescribed antibiotic classes in aquaculture, including amphenicols, or quinolones (enrofloxacin, nalidixic acid, ofloxacin), tetracyclines (doxycycline, chlortetracycline, and especially oxytetracycline), and sulfonamides (sulfamethoxazole and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim combination) all express high chemical stability in water. Conversely, penicillins are easily decomposed in the environment [ 144 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 ]. Among the different considered antibiotics, the concentrations of fluoroquinolones were higher than those of other antibiotics (68,000 ng/g, with a frequency of 39%).…”

“…Worldwide, over two million tons of fish are produced annually. Although the main producing countries are Norway and Chile, the consumption of fish is increasing in the EU, USA, and Asia [ 152 ]. Aquaculture is practiced in a variety of environmental compartments and settings (e.g., in the marine environment, freshwater environment, ponds, nets, closed, open, and recirculating systems), and the impacts could be very different [ 157 ].…”

“…and Vibrio spp. [ 152 ]. Another important topic is the application of sludge (e.g., salmon sludge) to agricultural soils, which, while having positive aspects of fertilization, can also represent a potential source of further ARG environmental diffusion [ 159 ].…”

“…The above conditions are realistically responsible for the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) or pan-resistant pathogenic or commensal microorganisms [ 160 ]. Furthermore, two other points should be taken into consideration: (i) several studies have indicated a statistically significant correlation between high water temperature (simulating the “global warming” phenomenon) and infected treated finfish, suggesting that warm water could be responsible for increased AMR diffusion; (ii) a different high direct correlation was demonstrated between heavy metal residues (such as lead, cadmium, and mercury) and the horizontal ARG transmission (for example, more specifically observed for tetracycline molecules: tet genes) [ 152 , 161 ].…”

Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles: An emerging antibacterial platform for pathogens of food animals

“…Several therapeutic approaches have been considered to control livestock and fish bacterial diseases including the use of chemicals and antibiotic drugs ( 10 – 16 ). The use of antibiotics has become a vital input in food animal species to achieve the ultimate goal of successful farming with high production ( 17 – 19 ).…”