Molecular characterisation and antibiotic resistance profile of Escherichia coli isolated from seafood

Abstract

The present study made an attempt to investigate the occurrence of pathogenic Escherichia coli in seafood, its antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and the biofilm forming capacity. Total of 43 seafood samples collected from ten commercial markets of Kochi was screened for the presence of pathogenic E. coli. The PCR results revealed that out of 21 isolates screened, only one isolate from fish sample showed positive for rfb E gene of Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates revealed that 90% of them were multidrug resistant to more than 5 antibiotics of four structurally different classes. The MAR index of all the isolates was found between 0.2 and 0.5. Out of the 15 moderate biofilm forming E. coli obtained, 2 of them exhibited maximum multidrug resistance to 8 antibiotics of six different classes whereas remaining 13 isolates showed multidrug resistance to 5 antibiotics. Hence, this study revealed the emergence of antibiotic resistance in biofilm forming E. coli in seafood from Kochi markets, which may pose future threat to develop control strategies in the fish processing industry and also pose significant treatment challenge to physicians.