Aeromonas spp. prevalence, virulence and antimicrobial resistance in an ex situ program for threatened freshwater fish – a pilot study with protective measures
Abstract
Ex situ breeding programs are important conservation tools for endangered freshwater fish. However, developing husbandry techniques that decrease the likelihood of disease, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence determinants acquisition during this process is challenging. In this pilot study, we conducted a captivity experiment with Portuguese nase (Iberochondrostoma lusitanicum), a critically endangered leuciscid species, to investigate the influence of simple protective measures (i.e., material disinfection protocols and animal handling with gloves) on the dynamics of a potential pathogenic genus, Aeromonas, as well as its virulence profiles and antimicrobial resistance signatures. Our findings show that antimicrobial resistance in Aeromonas spp. collected from I. lusitanicum significantly increased during the extent of the assay (5 weeks), with all isolates collected at the end of the study classified as multidrug-resistant. Additionally, humans handling fishes without protective measures were colonized by Aeromonas spp. The use of protective measures suggested a decreasing trend in Aeromonas spp. prevalence in I. lusitanicum, while bacterial isolates displayed significantly lower virulence index values when virulence phenotypical expression was tested at 22 °C. Despite this study representing an initial trial, which needs support from further research, protective measures tested are considered a simple tool to be applied in ex situ breeding programs for aquatic animals worldwide. Furthermore, current results raise concern regarding antimicrobial resistance amplification and zoonotic transmission of Aeromonas spp. in aquatic ex situ programs.
Citation
Grilo , M L , Amaro , G , Chambel , L , Marques , C S , Marques , T A , Gil , F , Sousa-Santos , C , Robalo , J I & Oliveira , M 2022 , ' Aeromonas spp. prevalence, virulence and antimicrobial resistance in an ex situ program for threatened freshwater fish – a pilot study with protective measures ' , Animals , vol. 12 , no. 4 , 436 . https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12040436
Publication
Animals
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2076-2615Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Description
This research was supported by CIISA - Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, Project UIDB/00276/2020 (funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia IP), by MARE (MARE-ISPA), MARE/UIDB/MAR/04292/2020 and strategic project MARE/UIDP/MAR/04292/2020 (also funded by FCT) and by the Zebra Foundation for Veterinary Zoological Education, Grant “A. hydrophila in Iberochondrostoma lusitanicum”. MLG thanks funding by the University of Lisbon (PhD fellowship C10571K). TAM and CM thank partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT, Portugal, through the project UIDB/00006/2020).Collections
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