AUTHOR=Tan Chia W. , Malcolm Tan T. H. , Kuan Chee H. , Thung Tze Y. , Chang Wei S. , Loo Yuet Y. , Premarathne Jayasekara M. K. J. K. , Ramzi Othman B. , Norshafawatie Mohd F. S. , Yusralimuna Nordin , Rukayadi Yaya , Nakaguchi Yoshitsugu , Nishibuchi Mitsuaki , Radu Son 

TITLE=Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolated from Short Mackerels (Rastrelliger brachysoma) in Malaysia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01087

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.01087

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Numerous prevalence studies and outbreaks of <italic>Vibrio parahaemolyticus</italic> infection have been extensively reported in shellfish and crustaceans. Information on the quantitative detection of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> in finfish species is limited. In this study, short mackerels (<italic>Rastrelliger brachysoma</italic>) obtained from different retail marketplaces were monitored with the presence of total and pathogenic strains of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic>. Out of 130 short mackerel samples, 116 (89.2%) were detected with the presence of total <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> and microbial loads of total <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> ranging from &lt;3 to &gt;10<sup>5</sup> MPN/g. Prevalence of total <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> was found highest in wet markets (95.2%) followed by minimarkets (89.1%) and hypermarkets (83.3%). Pathogenic <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> strains (<italic>tdh</italic>+ and/or <italic>trh</italic>+) were detected in 16.2% (21 of 130) of short mackerel samples. The density of <italic>tdh</italic>+ <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> strains were examined ranging from 3.6 to &gt;10<sup>5</sup> MPN/g and microbial loads of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> strains positive for both <italic>tdh</italic> and <italic>trh</italic> were found ranging from 300 to 740 MPN/g. On the other hand, antibiotic susceptibility profiles of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> strains isolated from short mackerels were determined through disc diffusion method in this study. Assessment of antimicrobial susceptibility profile of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> revealed majority of the isolates were highly susceptible to ampicillin sulbactam, meropenem, ceftazidime, and imipenem, but resistant to penicillin G and ampicillin. Two isolates (2.99%) exhibited the highest multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index value of 0.41 which shown resistance to 7 antibiotics. Results of the present study demonstrated that the occurrence of pathogenic <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> strains in short mackerels and multidrug resistance of <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic> isolates could be a potential public health concerns to the consumer. Furthermore, prevalence data attained from the current study can be further used to develop a microbial risk assessment model to estimate health risks associated with the consumption of short mackerels contaminated with pathogenic <italic>V. parahaemolyticus</italic>.</p>