High prevalence of blaCTX-M group genes in Aeromonas dhakensis isolated from aquaculture fish species in South Korea.

The prevalence of resistant genes against β-lactams in 119 Aeromonas strains was determined. A large number (99.2%) of the present fish strains were resistant to one or more β- lactams including ceftiofur, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ampicillin, piperacillin and cefpodoxime. Among antibiotic resistance phenotypes, the simultaneous resistance to all β-lactams occurred in 25.2% (n=30) of all strains, which consisted of 18 strains of A. dhakensis, 8 strains of A. caviae, 2 strains of A. hydrophila and only one strain of A. veronii. For exploring genetic background of the antibiotic resistances, multiple PCR assays were subjected to detect β-lactamase-encoding genes, blaTEM, blaOXA-B and blaCTX-M. In the results, the blaTEM-1 gene was harbored in all strains, whereas only 3 strains harbored blaOXA gene. In the case of blaCTX-M gene, the gene was detected in 21.0% (25 out of 119) of all strains, which countered with 80% (20 out of 25) of A. dhakensis, 8% (2 out of 25) of A. caviae and 12% (3 out of 25) of A. hydrophila. In addition, most of the blaCTX-M positive strains showed simultaneous resistance to all β-lactams (18 out of 30 strains). In sequence analysis for blaCTX-M genes detected, they were CTX-M group 1-encoding genes including blaCTX-M-33 from 3 eel strains of A. dhakensis. Therefore, A. dhakensis obtained from cultured fish could represent a reservoir for spreading genes encoding CTX-M group 1 enzymes and hence should be carefully monitored, especially for its potential risk to public health.