ABSTRACT
Shrimp digestive tract microflora has been considered important, as it provides several protective and metabolic functions. Misuse of antibiotics could lead to AMR in the gut microbial community, which could be transferred to humans. The present study aimed in determining the prevalence of the digestive tract microbial community and AMR associated with them. A total of 173 isolates were collected and characterised from the digestive tract of 120 shrimps, collected from six different regions of Maharashtra and Gujarat. A total of 144 gram negative isolates comprised predominantly of Vibrio spp were isolated and characterised. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates against 12 different antibiotics was carried out using disk diffusion method. Most of the isolates showed resistant against beta-lactam class of antibiotics and macrolide antibiotics. Among the 144 G negative isolates, 61 (39.5%) isolates were presumptively identified as Vibrio spp, based on their growth on the specific agar plates. Biochemical characterisation of the 61 Vibrio isolates revealed the presence of 31.14% of Vibrio cholerae, 31.14% of V. parahaemolyticus, 19.67% of V. vulnificus, 9.8% of V. harveyi and 8.2% of V. alginolyticus. The antibiogram profile showed that the 40 (74.07%) isolates were resistant to ampicillin, 24 (44.4%) were resistant to cephalothin, 21 (38.8%) were to aztreonam and 17 (31.5%) were resistant against erythromycin. Prevalence of multi-drug resistance was also observed among the bacterial isolates.