South Asian Journal of Research in Microbiology

Vibrio is a genus of bacteria belonging to the family Vibrionaceae and is of epidemiological importance. This organism is commonly found in aquatic environments and is associated with water and food-related infectious disease outbreaks of public health concern globally. About 85% of presumptive isolates recovered from fish and fish storage water collected from major markets in Okitipupa and Igbokoda areas of Ondo State, Nigeria were confirmed as Vibrio species via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques with the Vibrio-specific 16S rRNA gene as a target. Primers for 0mpW and toxR genes were used to identify V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus respectively. The isolates were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing against 12 antibiotics belonging to 8 classes. The prevalence of Vibrio cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus was 3.9% and 12.5% respectively. Vibrio spp. obtained in this study showed resistance to Meropenem (88.3%), Cefotaxime (81.3%), Ceftazidime (79.7%), Cefuroxime (78.1%), Tetracycline (54.7), Vancomycin (38.3%), Ceftriaxone (26.6%), Cotrimoxazole (21.9), Chloramphenicol (18%), Ciprofloxacin (12.5%), Amikacin (10.9%) and Gentamicin (6.2%). Vibrio species obtained from both sampled sites showed the highest susceptibility to Gentamicin (93.8%). Multiple antibiotic resistant Index (MARI) observed among the Vibrio species ranged from 0.25 and 0.83. This study revealed high incidence of multi-drug resistant Vibrio spp in the fish sold in these major markets, which suggests antimicrobial abuse in the study area. We concluded that the consumption of this aquaculture produce without proper processing and the discharge of the storage water into the environment without treatment pose a public and environmental health threat respectively.