Occurrence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profiles of Multidrug-Resistant Aeromonads Isolated from Freshwater Ornamental Fish in Chiang Mai Province

Antimicrobials are commonly used to prevent and treat disease in the ornamental fish industry. However, the indiscriminate and comprehensive overuse of unregulated antimicrobials without appropriate diagnostic examination could contribute to the development of antimicrobial-resistant strains of bacterial pathogens. Moreover, human infections caused by pathogens transmitted from fish or the aquatic environment are quite common. The frequent detection of antimicrobial resistance in ornamental fish and their environments are inevitable so as to decrease the transfer of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria from aquatic sources to other environments. This study evaluated the prevalence of common bacteria species and the antimicrobial susceptibility profile in ornamental fish that were sold in an ornamental fish shop in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aeromonas spp. were the most dominant of the isolated species from the ornamental fish samples and accounted for 68.09% of the total. Other species detected included Vibrio spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Citrobacter spp. A high percentage of resistance to amoxicillin (93.75%), oxytetracycline (79.69%), and erythromycin (75.00%) was observed among the Aeromonas spp. The antimicrobial resistance information for ornamental fish is very limited, and the results from this study indicate that the Aeromonas spp. are highly resistant to several important antibiotics. The results suggest that additional steps should be taken to educate store owners to reduce the indiscriminate use of these antibiotics to decrease the antimicrobial resistance in ornamental fish to potentially improve public health.