Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages against aeromonads from fish culture ponds
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Date
2022-09
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Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University hisar
Abstract
An increasing prevalence of multidrug resistance amongst aeromonads, which are both fish pathogens and emerging opportunistic human pathogens, has been observed worldwide. Currently, Aeromonas is regarded as a reliable indicator organism for water quality, and it can be used to assess the occurrence, emergence, and spread of AMR in aquatic environments. Present study documents the high prevalence of A. veronii isolates (65%) followed by A. hydrophila (11.2%), A. jandaei (5.1%) and A. caviae (4%) in the village pond waters in/around district Hisar (Haryana, India), the abundance being an indicative of conditional pathogenicity for the fish health and may cause disease outbreaks and morbidities, as well as its a public and livestock health concern. Also, the prevailing water quality parameters of the pond waters is challenging e.g., high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Electrical Conductivity (EC), for the fish culture and hence must regularly be monitored. The Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) profile of the isolated Aeromonas isolates indicates the restricted use of most antimicrobial drugs in fish culture however, the high resistance observed to nalidixic acid (41%), cefoxitin (33%) and imipenem (7%) in addition to occurrence of 10% Extended Spectrum β-Lactamases (ESBL), 33% AmpC β-Lactamases (ACBL) and 30% MDR isolates is alarming and may be a result of cross-contamination from the human and livestock antimicrobial usage as evident by the largely common use of pond water viz. major public health hazard. Keeping the above concern in view, our study has isolated 34 new bacteriophages that infect Aeromonas, 3 phages that infect Stenotrophomonas and 2 phages against Pseudomonas which show a high biodiversity of bacteriophages present in the fish ponds. Further, the biological characterization and experimental findings on the isolated phages show their specificity for several bacterial isolates i.e., broad biological spectrum and wide stability range. This consortium of phages can be effective for their use in phage therapy in case of affected groups as potential bactericidal approach.