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Page No. : 4-9

ABSTRACT

A total of 420 samples collected including fish and prawn from fresh (70 each), marine (70 each) and estuarine (70 each) environments from different sources were subjected for isolation and characterization of Vibrio vulnificus. Out of 420, 52 (12.38%) were positive for Vibrio species using phenotypic characterization of which 26 (50%) were confirmed to be V. vulnificus using PCR. All the 26 V. vulnificus isolates carried vvhA gene and all the V. vulnificus isolates belonged to Bt1. All isolates were resistant to penicillin (100%) followed by vancomycin (61.54%), cefixime and erythromycin (46.15% each) and nalidixic acid (30.77%). Multidrug resistance was observed in 46.15% of the isolates. Of the 26 isolates, 61.53% and 3.85% showed blaTEM and blaSHV gene, respectively and none of the isolates were positive for blaOXA and blaCTX-M genes. A greater degree of molecular heterogeneity was observed among 17 ESBL positive V. vulnificus isolates from different sources as 16 and 17 different genotypes were observed under ERIC and REP-PCR, respectively. The discriminatory power of the two typing methods for V. vulnificus isolates was found to be highly significant i.e. 0.9926 and one for ERIC and REP-PCR, respectively.

Keywords: V. vulnificus, Biotype, Fish, Prawn, ERIC and REP-PCR