Species diversity, tetracycline resistance and virulence factor gene profile of pathogenic Aeromonas spp. isolated from Nile tilapia seed farms in southern Thailand
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Abstract
The pathogenic bacteria causing motile Aeromonas septicemia (MAS) in Nile tilapia seeds cultured in southern Thailand between 2016 and 2020 were identified and tested for its antibiotic resistance ability against tetracycline drugs. In addition, tetracycline resistance genes and virulence genes were determined in the tetracycline-resistant Aeromonas spp. Our results indicated that almost 70% (172/250 isolates) was tetracycline resistance. According to the biochemical test, 250 isolates were assigned to 7 different platforms. Five isolates from each biochemical platform were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence and phylogenetic reconstruction analysis. A. veronii biovar veronii, A. veronii biovar sobria, A. hydrophila, A. caviae, and A. jandaei were identified of which A. veronii biovar veronii was a dominant species. Efflux antibiotic genes (tetA, tetB, tetC, tetD, and tetE) were only found in the tetracycline-resistant Aeromonas spp. The predominant tetracycline resistance gene detected was tetA. Multiple tet genes were found in the tetracycline-resistant Aeromonas spp. In addition, 9 different virulence factor gene profiles of lipase, elastase, enolase, aerolysin (aerA), and heat-labile cytotonic enterotoxin (alt) were established. Twelve of 35 isolates (34.29%) had 3 virulence genes; 6 (17.14%) for lipase/enolase/alt, 3 (8.57%) for lipase/enolase/aerA, 2 (5.71%) for elastase/enolase/aerA, and 1 (2.86%) for elastase/enolase/alt. Our results suggested that there is a variation in isolated Aeromonas spp. with different phenotypes of tetracycline resistance and genotypes of tetracycline resistance genes and virulence factor genes.
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