Gerald Bassleer reviews a 2022 study of a disease outbreak at a Betta farm in Kerala, India that identified seven bacterial species including Mycobacterium renum. Researchers tested 42 antibiotics and found widespread multidrug resistance, though carbapenems and certain fluoroquinolones still worked. The findings raise concerns for fish health management and zoonotic risk to farm workers.
Questions this video answers
2022
Kerala, India; January–March 2021
42 antibiotics
"Mycobacterium renum" (as named by the speaker)
Chapters
Hello dear aquarists. Welcome to my study number three on Mycobacterium about Betta fish, the Siamese fighting fish and some other bacteria that I will discuss here on a study that's been published in India on a very interesting examination on the antibiotic resistance, the bacteria that has infected the Siamese fighting fish. This study has been done in India, hasn't been done before. Usually the studies are done on other fish in Thailand or in America. But this case I want to show you my. Well the study I I got enhanced, it was published in 2022 and the title is Detection of Mycobacterium Multidric Resistant bacteria in a Chronic Progressive Disease Outbreak among Siamese Fighting Fish Beta Splendus in India. I will give you below on the link the details where you can find back this report or this scientific study. We all know that the Siamese fighting fish is well very popular fish and there have been increasing reports of infection in betta fish by bacterial and viral pathogens. Well, as you seen in my cases I present on fish diseases. Yes I have found quite some bacterial infections in the betta fish. You can see that in my cases of gouramis and bettas. I will show you the link also below where you can see more of my studies. And in this present study the causative agents for a chronic infection in beta from a private farm in Kerala, India were investigated and in general, well, I continue reading the extract it revealed that seven different bacterial isolates which I try to pronounce here Aquitaliae, Acinetobacter bacillus, Acinetobacter Klebsiella and Ayodomonas were detected and antibiotic susceptibility were used in disc diffusing technique revealed that all the bacteria except the Aequitalia palogans were multi drug resistant. I will show you the details or you can find them yourself in the link below but I will explain a little bit further on. It also revealed there was a presence of Mycobacterium renum in the infected fish and no viruses were detected. No absence of viral etiology. So far they this study revealed and the study recommends frequent monitoring of betta farms for bacterial pathogens. Also the study on their antibiotic resistance profiles and to do a proper management and better survey of the fish tanks. Yes, I explain that quite often in my studies that you should do a good fish health management. Particularly there is a zoonotic concern that it can have an impact on human health. I will explain later on in detail. Well it was Study was done in Kerala, India during the period of January and March 2021. And the farm owner in Kerala had complained of unconditioned, uncoordinated swimming, weight loss of the bettas, reduced and grouped fins of the fish. So reduced means like fin rot or fin decay. Also he reported chronic infection and consistent mortality of fish over two months. Well, this is typical for a bacterial infection that there is a permanent loss and that there is a chronic infection going on. Moreover, antibiotics did not have an apparent effect on the disease control. This means he has been using antibiotics, but it didn't bring any success. So here are the materials they used for the identification and the collecting. I will not go in detail for you on that. Interested to you for you is of course the antibiotic resistance profiling. And you hear, you see they used quite a bit of antibiotics. 42 antibiotics were tested and you can see here if there was a resistance. 100% means there is 100% resistance against amoxicillin for instance, or against ampicillin. Of those bacterial strains that they were detected, there was no resistance against the carbopenin kind of antibiotics. This is a group of antibiotics which hardly been used in our ornamental industry and it's not always recommended to use them. You have to ask your veterinarian for advice or your fish doctor. Some are really human medications which are only meant for human treatment, so not for fish. Interesting to notice also the quinolones and fluoroquinolones like androfloxacine or norfloxacin or are seems to be having a good activity. No resistance had been found, so it has probably not been used in the fish farm. So that's a few indications on the resistance because most of the other like tetracycline was 42% resistance. You know the. I will give you some more details here. Further on while here the entire biogram the results. About 71% of the bacteria were resistant to for example, for example 3 metoprime, which is quite commonly used. In order a quobby and industry. About 75% of the bacteria were resistant to nitrofurantoin or furazolidone, which are commonly used. But you can see there is a lot of resistance. About 43% of the bacteria were resistant to oxidate recycling. About 28% of the isolates resistant to streptomycin, erythromycin, sulfadiazine, chloramphenicol and cholistine, which are quite commonly used. Well, it's only 28% but it is A resistance and well that however all the isolates were sensitive to the drugs I mentioned above here like the group like Androfloxacine, orofloxacine, Gantamycin, meroprim, here it's all in the green I indicated here. And this was particularly done on this group of bacteria. You know, like I mentioned the beginning, the Aquitalae, the Acinetobacter, the Pseudomonas, the Bacillus, the Acinetobacter, the Klepsiella, Ardomonas, Feroniva, quite some which are rather pathogenic for the fish and also can be pathogenic for humans. Some of them. Here we see in detail the resistance. Here we see those seven types of bacteria and here we see the gray part where there is no resistance and the red part where there is a maximum of 100% resistance. So that's for you to go in detail. But anyway ask your fish doctor veterinarian for the proper use of antibiotics. They also found my bacterium since the infection was chronic. And the Betta fish showed Mycobacterium specific clinical signs such as uncoordinated swimming, weight loss grouping of the fins bacterium was screened using both culturable and unculturable methods. You can see here the methods they used to try to identify the Mycobacterium. I don't all agree with the typical symptoms because as I show you my cases Mycobacterium has so multiple different signs or symptoms of disease outbreaks. Can be ulcers, can be bloat, can be raised scales, can be emaciation, skinny fish or sometimes no symptoms. So difficult to say that's the reason they did it. I'm happy they did it anyway because it's a good scientific study they did on that. And it's interesting that here they report that earlier there has been a report of the detection of Mycobacterium marinum, which is the one here they discuss. From the fitter fish were discussed before which had no clinical signs. See like I said, sometimes no clinical signs and. But they were associated with big belly and skin nodules syndrome in fish from Thailand. You can see the study of dung. Also other fish like Apistogramma, goldfish, angelfish, guppies, zebrafish by Mason or Kusar were detected in the studies. Also several studies pointed out that here in red is a bacterium that is capable of causing severe zoonotic infections in human but especially when there is immune compromised situation. I try to read it closely because it's. I have to put it in bigger sign here where I can read it. That means if people have a poor immune system or they have lesions or wounds, it means also immune depressive you if your wounds. If you have wounds, that means you have no protection, like your skin is a protector. But if you have a very bad immune system, well, it's like most of the diseases, you can get sick not only for Mycobacterium, but also for others. And it's known by people working with fish and have a very bad immune system. Well, you have to be careful when you have wounds. You have to do anyway you have wounds to be careful when you work with fish. You have to disinfect your hands. You have to use soap or disinfectant after you work with the fish. When you particularly have lesions or mosquito bites or anything like that. But people have a weak immune system. It's known that for instance, heavy smokers which have bad lung damage can have serious problems. So this is some things you can see later on below in the article in the references which are pointed out. Well to conclude this, this, this study here, it provides basic information on the bacterial diversity and their antibiotic resistance profiles which are important for fish disease management. Yes, it gives you a lesson what you can use as antibiotics and also how to prevent by using a proper application of antibiotics. Be careful, don't just use them. However, the reason for the chronic infection in this case could be due to Mycobacterium marinum. Yes, Mycobacterium is a slow wasting away disease. So the fish are chronically getting sick and might have secondary bacterial infections from the ones the several ones which were indicated before. So sometimes in many cases I could say we find a mix of bacterial infections, particularly with Mycobacterium. And the authors hypothesize here that not just Mycobacterium but also autobacteria are antibiotic resistant, could cause zoonotic concern to aquarium handlers. Further experiments are required to confirm this hepatitisis. And the study also warrants proper maintenance. It warrants proper maintenance and frequent survey of the fish tanks for non tuberculosis Mycobacteria. It's not tuberculosis. Yes, mycobacteria is causing fish tuberculosis. Not tuberculosis like we know as human tuberculosis. This is fish tuberculosis. It's hard to be eliminated and vaccines are currently not available. So it highlights the potential of bacterial pathogens. So it's something you have to concern about. And read more articles if you want. Particularly the one on Dong has a good study on the Siamese biofish Kusar about Mycobacterium and aquarium fish. And. Well, this is something I could. And here. What? I didn't indicate it. Mason here also by zebrafish. Well, this something as a study I like to share with you. Sometimes I find them. I'm interested to quote to you because I find bacteria in my cases of fish disease, and I discuss this quite often, that sometimes a laboratory is necessary to see what antibiotic resistance is involved. And just be careful by using antibiotics. Don't just use it. When you see a fin rod, try to do a proper examination. What is the cause of the fish disease? Use antibiotics carefully and ask advice from your veterinarian or your fish doctor. If you have any questions, please put your remarks down here below. Thank you for watching.
