Evaluation of antibacterial resistance in Vibrio strains isolated from imported seafood and Italian aquaculture settings

Ninety-two Vibrio strains isolated over a period of 9 years from different sources (national and imported fishery products, shellfish, seawater from aquaculture settings, etc.) and belonging mostly to two species relevant for human health and fish pathology, V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus, were tested for resistance to different antibacterials using the standard disk diffusion test (five antibacterials: ampicillin, sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and chloramphenicol) and the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations method (six antibacterial families: β-lactams, tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, quinolones, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) providing consistent results. The analysis performed by standard disk diffusion test showed resistance to ampicillin in 82% of the strains, whereas 7% were resistant to sulfamethoxazole, 3% to tetracycline, and 1% to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole; no strain was found to be resistant to chloramphenicol. The results obtained by the MIC tests, because of the absence of established breakpoints for some antibacterials, were not readily interpretable for all substances, but showed no statistically significant difference to the results obtained by the standard disk diffusion test. Beside these results, high MIC₉₀ values (128 μg ml⁻¹ and above) were obtained for kanamycin and streptomycin, indicating that high concentrations of these antibacterials were required to inhibit the growth of the strains. Strains exhibiting resistance or intermediate resistance to two or more antibacterials represented 15% of the total and included, beside resistance to ampicillin, resistance to sulfamethoxazole or, for V. parahaemolyticus isolates, tetracycline. Interestingly, differences in the mechanism of resistance to β-lactams were detected between the species V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus.