Antimicrobial resistance and virulence characteristics of Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio harveyi from natural disease outbreaks of marine/estuarine fishes

Abstract

Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio harveyi are the causative agents of the most severe diseases of marine and brackish aquaculture systems. These are also associated with serious ailments in humans. The present paper unravels the virulence features/genes and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) phenotypes/genes of these Vibrio spp. isolated from natural disease outbreaks of marine/estuarine fishes of India for the first time. Results on virulence features showed that V. vulnificus infected fish can pose public health risk. While, it has been found clinically that V. parahaemolyticus without tdh and trh genes are pathogenic to fish, even though they are reported to be, not associated with human diseases. It was significant to note that virulence features of V. harveyi were induced at increased salinity. Analysis based on the percentage prevalence of susceptible isolates and variation coefficient of zone diameters categorized 17 antibiotics in terms of their efficiency against each fish pathogenic species. Multiple antibiotic resistance index (MARi) of the isolates ranged between 0.058 and 0.47. Results on MARi and percentage of multidrug resistance strains indicated that >50% of the isolates were from low antibiotic usage area. The study generated tetH sequence from V. parahaemolyticus for the first time, and the sequence revealed high identity to that of clinical strains. Presence of tetB/ tetH gene was identified as the predictor for the resistance against the first generation tetracycline, the most commonly used antibiotic against Vibrio spp. in aquaculture practices. The data on associations between AMR features predicted certain cross-resistance between antimicrobials within Vibrio spp. Altogether, the paper serves as the baseline for epizootic tracking of public health significant vibrios from diseased fishes, to devise practical guidelines for antibiotic use and to formulate efficient control measures against three Vibrio spp. in aquaculture, targeting final applications in the implementation of national green and healthy aquaculture practices.

Foodborne Pathogenic Vibrios: Antimicrobial Resistance

“…Comprehensive whole genome sequencing studies suggest that drug-resistant Vibrios harbor mobile genetic elements like plasmids, integrating conjugative elements e.g., SXT, gene cassettes, and integrons (Beaber et al, 2002;Rapa and Labbate, 2013;Partridge et al, 2018;Das et al, 2020). Interestingly, Tox R expression (by tox R gene) in food borne V. parahaemolyticus is able to regulate the production of thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) (tdh gene), TDH related hemolysin (TRH) (trh gene), Type III Secretion Systems T3SS1 and T3SS2 which are intrinsic factors that can cause damage from a distance even in absence of direct pathogens and hence remain ineffective in presence of antibiotics (Hubbard et al, 2016;Mala et al, 2016;Mariya Sony et al, 2021). Some clinical V. parahaemolyticus strains, however, remains pathogenic without having the mentioned virulence factors indicating the existence of putative factors and pathogenicity might be achieved with different strategies employed by different strains (Cai and Zhang, 2018).…”

“…Presence of tetB/tetH gene was identified as the predictor for the resistance against the first generation tetracycline, the most commonly used antibiotic against Vibrio spp. in marine and brackish aquaculture systems of India (Mariya Sony et al, 2021). In addition to antibiotic abuse, warming temperatures, acid-base and organic pollution can directly induce the expression of such antibiotic resistance genes and virulence genes and also affect HGT (Guijarro et al, 2015;Deng et al, 2020).…”

Alginate Co-probiotics Bioencapsulation Facilitates Artemia to Improve Immune Parameters, Gene Expression, Feed Digestibility and Resistance Against Vibrio spp

“…The cumulative mortality (%) of bio encapsulated Artemia without Vibrios challenged was reached earlier than those with Vibrios challenged. V. harveyi, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulni cus are opportunistic pathogenic and the causative agents of the most severe diseases of estuarine and marine aquaculture systems (Sony et al 2021). Elmahdi et al ( 2016) reported that V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulni cus are not only antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, more than that this Vibrio is also displayed multi-drug resistance bacteria in countries around the world (Nadella et al 2021).…”

“…(Baker-Austin et al 2018) have been widespread, recently. V. harveyi, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulni cus are the causative agents of the most severe diseases of aquaculture systems, causing substantial economic losses to marine or estuarine aquaculture practices (Sony et al 2021). Vibrio spp.…”

Isolation, Molecular Characterization, and Antimicrobial Resistance of Selected Culturable Bacteria From Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii)

“…Bacteria from freshwater animals such as Aeromonas sp., Citrobacter sp., and Vibrio sp. have been demonstrated to be vectors for antimicrobial resistance genes ( Ranjbar et al, 2019 ; Singh et al, 2020 ; Sony et al, 2021 ). Drug-resistant bacteria could transmit from crayfish to human through the food chain, incurring infectious disease among humans.…”