Prevalence, Antimicrobial Resistance and Resistance Gene Cassettes Detection in Bacterial Pathogens Isolated from Freshwater Ornamental Fishes

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a rising concern in the global aquaculture sector due to the rampant prophylactic use of antibiotics. This study is aimed to determine the AMR pattern in freshwater ornamental fishes. Methods: Fish pathogens were isolated and identified from infected Guppy and Molly collected from ornamental fish farms. Antibiotic susceptibility testing (ABST) using disc diffusion with 36 antibiotics was performed following the disc diffusion method. The resistance gene cassettes such as Class 1 and Class 2 integron were also detected from resolved isolates. Result: Fish pathogens were isolated and identified as Aeromonas hydrophila, A. dhakensis, A. veronii, A. sobria, Bacillus subtilis, Comamonas testosteroni, Edwardsiella tarda, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterococcus faecalis, Kurthia gibsonii and Klebsiella aerogenes. Shannon Weiner diversity index of resolved isolates was found to be 1.366 and 2.101 for Guppy and Molly, respectively. ABST results showed an elevated resistance pattern for A. veronii, E. faecalis (Guppy), K. aerogenes, B. subtilis, E. faecalis, C. testosteroni (Molly) with higher multiple antibiotic resistance indexes ( greater than 0.33). Meanwhile, all the recovered isolates were susceptible to sulphafurazole, enrofloxacin, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin. Detection of class 1 integron in genomic and plasmid DNA reminds the rapid spread of the AMR gene through horizontal gene transfer.