Prevalence and distribution of antibiotic resistance in marine fish farming areas in Hainan, China

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2019-02, Vol.653, p.605-611
• Main Authors: Wu, Jinjun, Su, Youlu, Deng, Yiqin, Guo, Zhixun, Mao, Chan, Liu, Guangfeng, Xu, Liwen, Cheng, Changhong, Bei, Lei, Feng, Juan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibiotic resistance genes; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Environmental factors; Marine fish farming areas
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.251

Antibiotic resistance represents a global health crisis for humans, animals, and for the environment. Transmission of antibiotic resistance through environmental pathways is a cause of concern. In this study, quantitative PCR and culture-dependent bacteriological methods were used to detect the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and the quantity of culturable heterotrophic antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in marine fish farming areas. The results indicated that sul and tet family genes were widely distributed in marine fish farming areas of Hainan during both rearing and harvesting periods. Specifically, sul1 and tetB were the most dominant ARGs. The total abundance of ARGs increased significantly from the rearing to the harvesting period. A total of 715 ARB strains were classified into 24 genera, within these genera Vibrio, Acinetobacter, Pseudoalteromonas, and Alteromonas are opportunistic pathogens. High bacterial resistance rate to oxytetracycline (OT) was observed. The numbers of OT- and enrofloxacin-resistant bacteria dropped significantly from rearing the period to the harvesting. The co-occurrence pattern showed that Ruegeria and tetB could be indicators of ARB and ARGs, respectively, which were found in the same module. Redundancy analysis indicated that salinity was positively correlated with the most dominant ARB, and was negatively correlated with the most dominant ARGs. These findings demonstrated the prevalence and persistence of ARGs and ARB in marine fish farming areas in China. [Display omitted] •Sul1 and tetB were the most dominant genes from the sul and tet family genes, respectively.•Significantly increased of the total abundance of ARGs were observed from rearing period to harvesting period.•The high bacterial resistance rate of oxytetracycline was observed, and the dominate ARB were opportunistic pathogens.•Salinity had a crucial effect on the abundance of ARGs and ARB in marine fish farming area.