title: Incidence of multidrug resistant Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from Ponnani, South India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The prevalence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been reported from Ponnani earlier, however incidence of multidrug resistant strains have been encountered recently in clinical laboratories. The source for such strains and their presence in this major fish landing centre has been investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Antibiotic sensitivity tests on isolates of V. parahaemolyticus isolated from three different substrates were conducted following disc diffusion method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Populations of V. parahaemolyticus (cfu/ml) were relatively high in sediment samples (7.67 ± 2.08), compared to shrimp (5.33 ±1.53) and water samples (3.67 ± 1.15). V. parahaemolyticus isolated from water showed relatively higher antibiotic resistance pattern compared to other two groups. The highest incidence of antibiotic resistance was recorded against cephalothin and nitrofurantonine; the lowest was against tobramycin, piperacillin and amikacin. Maximum multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains were encountered from water samples followed by shrimps.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results emerging from the present study clearly showed that Ponnani has a fairly good population of antibiotic resistant strains of V. parahaemolyticus. The present study provides an insight on the microbial population of V. parahaemolyticus in Ponnani harbour and warrants the need to develop control measures to reduce incidences of post-harvest contamination of seafood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aquaculture and Fishery Microbiology, MES Ponnani College, Ponnani South, India.
authors.forename: Pilakka Veettil
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Reyhanath
authors.affiliation: Department of Aquaculture and Fishery Microbiology, MES Ponnani College, Ponnani South, India.
authors.forename: Ranjeet
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kutty
keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Ponnani; Vibrio parahaemolyticus