Occurrence of multiple antibiotic resistance and genotypic characterization in Edwardsiella tarda isolated from cage‐cultured hybrid red tilapia ( Oreochromis sp.) in the Ping River, Northern Thailand

Edwardsiella tarda is a pathogen that causes edwardsiellosis in aquatic animals. The emergence of multiple antibiotic‐resistant strains makes antibiotic treatment difficult. This study aimed to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility patterns and the genotypic characterization of E. tarda isolated from cage‐cultured red tilapia in Thailand. A total of 30 isolates were identified as E. tarda using biochemical and molecular analysis. The disc diffusion method for testing antibiotic susceptibility showed all the isolates were resistant to colistin sulphate and oxolinic acid. High levels of resistance to amoxicillin, ampicillin, ceftazidime, oxytetracycline and sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim were observed as well. The multiple antibiotic resistance index ranged from 0.25 to 0.92, indicating that these isolates had been exposed to high risk sources of contamination where antibiotics were commonly used. All the isolates carried the blaTEM gene based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The tetA and sul3 genes were detected in 90% (27/30) and 26.7% (8/30) of the isolates respectively. Nine different genetic groups of isolates were obtained using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC‐PCR). A correlation between genetic types and multiple antibiotic‐resistant patterns was found. These results highlight the potential risks of multiple antibiotic‐resistant isolates for humans and the environment.