Incidence and Antibiotic Susceptibility Profile of Plesiomonas shigelloides Isolated from Fish, Fish Storage water and Fish seller's towel

This study evaluated the incidence of Plesiomonas shigelloides and their antibiogram pattern in fish storage water, fish and fish sellers towel swab collected from two major markets in Southern part of Ondo State, Nigeria. About 158 presumptive Plesiomonas shigelloides were recovered from the samples collected from the two markets and only 58 (31.6%) were positive using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) method. Using the disc diffusion method, confirmed isolates were assessed for their antibiogram profiles against 15 antibiotics and multiple antibiotic resistance phenotypes. Resistance of the isolates against the antibiotics followed the order: Erythromycin (85%), Ampicillin (83%), Ceftazidime (81%), Cefuroxime (71%), Tetracycline (67%), Meropenem and Vancomycin (45%), Amoxicillin and Streptomycin (43%), Trimethoprim (41%), Ciprofloxacin and Chloramphenicol (34%), Gentamicin (26%), Cotrimoxazole (22%) and Amikacin (21%). Conversely, all the isolates did not show 100 % susceptibility to any antibiotics, and susceptibility against the antibiotics follows the order: Amikacin (79%), Cotrimoxazole (78%), Gentamicin (74%), Ciprofloxacin and Chloramphenicol (66%), Trimethoprim (59%), Amoxicillin and Streptomycin (57%), Meropenem and Vancomycin (55%), Tetracycline (33%), Cefuroxime (29%), and exhibited less than 20% susceptibility to other antibiotics. The multiple antibiotic-resistance indices of the organism were higher than the accepted threshold of 0.2. This is the first report on assessing the ease at which P. shigelloides in Clarias gariepinus sold in the market can be transmitted. We concluded that this pathogen with multiple antimicrobial resistant phenotypes can be easily transmitted consequently, a public health threat meanwhile, Amikacin, Cotrimoxazole and Gentamicin are important antibiotics that could be used against the pathogen.