Abstract

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Plesiomonas shigelloides is an emerging pathogen commonly found in aquatic environment that had been implicated in diverse gastrointestinal diseases. This study evaluated the incidence of Plesiomonas shigelloides and their antibiogram pattern in fish storage water, fish and fish seller’s towel swab. Samples were collected from two major markets in Southern part of Ondo State, Nigeria and broth culture of 18 – 24h old enriched culture was plated on Inositol Brilliant Green Bile agar for up to 48 h at 37oC. Isolates were confirmed via PCR and sequencing-based method. Using the disc diffusion method, confirmed isolates were assessed for their antibiogram profiles against 15 antibiotics and multiple antibiotic resistance phenotypes. About 158 presumptive Plesiomonas shigelloides was recovered from the samples collected from the two markets and only 58 (31.6%) were positive using PCR. Resistance of the isolates against the antibiotics followed the order: Erythromycin (85%), Ampicillin (83%), Ceftazidime (81%), Cefuroxime (71%), Tetracycline (67%), Meropenem and Vancomycin (45%), Amoxicillin and Streptomycin (43%), Trimethoprim (41%), Ciprofloxacin and Chloramphenicol (34%), Gentamicin (26%), Cotrimoxazole (22%) and Amikacin (21%). The multiple antibiotic-resistance indices of the organism were higher than the accepted threshold of 0.2. This is the first report on assessing the ease at which P. shigelloides in Clarias gariepinus sold in the market can be transmitted. We concluded that this pathogen with multiple antimicrobial resistant phenotypes can be easily transmitted consequently, a public health threat meanwhile, Amikacin, Cotrimoxazole and Gentamicin are important antibiotics that could be used against the pathogen.

Keywords: Antibiotics Susceptibility, Clarias gariepinus, Plesiomonas shigelloides, Resistant phenotypes, Towel