Antibiotic resistance has become an important focus of research in the aquaculture environment. However, few studies have evaluated antibiotic resistance during the seedling period in marine fish cage-culture areas. In this study, culture-dependent methods and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were used to identify and detect cultivable heterotrophic antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), respectively, during the seedling period in a marine fish cage-culture areas of Hainan, China. Bacterial resistance to amoxicillin, erythromycin, and gentamicin was generally high (average on 27.67%, 23.61% and 37.32%, respectively), whereas resistance to furazolidone and nitrofurantoin was generally low (average on 0.14% and 7.425%). Alteromonas (32.72%) and Vibrio (24.77%) were the dominant genus of ARB. Most ARB were opportunistic pathogens, belonging to the phylum Proteobacteria (96.02%). The abundance of sul family genes was higher than that of tet family genes. Overall, the abundance of ARGs and the resistance rates in HW was highest.
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Marine fish cage-culture areas; Seedling period.
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