Antibiotic Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria from Wild Captured Loggerhead Sea Turtles
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Filicudi Wildlife Conservation, Location Stimpagnato Filicudi, 98055 Lipari (Me), Italy
2
Department of Biology, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 00133 Rome, Italy
3
Department of Environment and Health, National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
4
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 00144 Rome, Italy
5
Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), University of Palermo, 90028 Palermo, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Antibiotics 2020, 9(4), 162; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9040162
Received: 13 March 2020
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Revised: 28 March 2020
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Accepted: 1 April 2020
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Published: 6 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibiotics and Environment)
Sea turtles have been proposed as health indicators of marine habitats and carriers of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, for their longevity and migratory lifestyle. Up to now, a few studies evaluated the antibacterial resistant flora of Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and most of them were carried out on stranded or recovered animals. In this study, the isolation and the antibiotic resistance profile of 90 Gram negative bacteria from cloacal swabs of 33 Mediterranean wild captured loggerhead sea turtles are described. Among sea turtles found in their foraging sites, 23 were in good health and 10 needed recovery for different health problems (hereafter named weak). Isolated cloacal bacteria belonged mainly to Enterobacteriaceae (59%), Shewanellaceae (31%) and Vibrionaceae families (5%). Although slight differences in the bacterial composition, healthy and weak sea turtles shared antibiotic-resistant strains. In total, 74 strains were endowed with one or multi resistance (up to five different drugs) phenotypes, mainly towards ampicillin (~70%) or sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (more than 30%). Hence, our results confirmed the presence of antibiotic-resistant strains also in healthy marine animals and the role of the loggerhead sea turtles in spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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Keywords:
antibiotic resistance; Caretta caretta; marine habitats; bacterial ecology; feeding; marine microbial ecology; marine bacteria; Mediterranean Sea
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MDPI and ACS Style
Blasi, M.F.; Migliore, L.; Mattei, D.; Rotini, A.; Thaller, M.C.; Alduina, R. Antibiotic Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria from Wild Captured Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Antibiotics 2020, 9, 162. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9040162
AMA Style
Blasi MF, Migliore L, Mattei D, Rotini A, Thaller MC, Alduina R. Antibiotic Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria from Wild Captured Loggerhead Sea Turtles. Antibiotics. 2020; 9(4):162. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9040162
Chicago/Turabian StyleBlasi, Monica F., Luciana Migliore, Daniela Mattei, Alice Rotini, Maria C. Thaller, and Rosa Alduina. 2020. "Antibiotic Resistance of Gram-Negative Bacteria from Wild Captured Loggerhead Sea Turtles" Antibiotics 9, no. 4: 162. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9040162
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