Patterns of triclosan resistance in Vibrionaceae

The antimicrobial additive triclosan has been used in personal care products widely across the globe for decades. Triclosan resistance has been noted among Vibrio spp., but reports have been anecdotal and the extent of phenotypic triclosan resistance across the Vibrionaceae family has not been established. Here, triclosan resistance was determined for Vibrionaceae strains across nine distinct clades. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined for 70 isolates from clinical (n = 6) and environmental sources (n = 64); only two were susceptible to triclosan. The mean MIC for all resistant Vibrionaceae was 53 µg mL(−1) (range 3.1–550 µg mL(−1)), but was significantly different between clades (p < 0.001). The highest mean triclosan MIC was observed in the Splendidus clade (200 µg mL(−1); n = 3). Triclosan mean MICs were 68.8 µg mL(−1) in the Damselae clade and 45.3 µg mL(−1) in the Harveyi clade. The lowest mean MIC was observed in the Cholerae clade with 14.4 µg mL(−1), which was primarily represented by clinical strains. There were no significant differences in triclosan MIC among individual species or among environmental strains isolated from different locations. Overall, phenotypic triclosan resistance appears to be widespread across multiple clades of Vibrionaceae.