ISSN: 2577-4050
Authors: Anifowose OR*, Adeoye BO and Olayiwola AO
Background: Disease is the most significant obstacle in aquaculture causing harm to farmers’ livelihoods, reducing their income, and resulting in unemployment and food insecurity. This study was conducted to determine pathogenicity and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Enterococcus faecalis in Clarias gariepinus juvenile. Methodology: Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Enterococcus faecalis was carried out using agar disc diffusion method. Clarias gariepinus juvenile (n = 100) with an average weight of 19.0 ± 0.81 g, and length of 11.7 ± 0.6 cm, were randomly divided into five groups, and four groups were infected with 1ml of TSA broth culture containing 2.1 X 106 CFU Enterococcus faecalis OgNG1 by immersion at the rate of 5ml/L of water. The infected and control groups were monitored daily for 14 days. The clinical signs, gross, skin lesions, and mortalities were observed. Haematology, blood chemistry, and histopathological changes in the skin and gill were investigated. An Independent T-test was used for statistical analysis and p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The cumulative mortality in infected juvenile was 77.5%, and the gross lesion indicated atrophied barbel, skin ulceration, and necrosis of the gill. Histopathological analysis revealed erosion of secondary lamellae, epidermal and dermal layer. The isolates were multi-drug resistant with MAR index of 0.64, indicating resistance to Aminoglycosides, Quinolones, Tetracyclines, Cephalosporins, and Phenicols classes of antibiotic drugs, though sensitive to penicillin; ampicillin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin-cloxacillin. Clinicopathological investigation showed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower packed cell volume, hemoglobin, and red blood cells in infected groups compared to the control group. Meanwhile, white blood cells were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in the infected groups compared with the control group. Moreover, there was a significant increase (p ≤ 0.05) in the activity of serum AST, ALT, and creatinine but a significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) in total protein, albumin, and globulin concentrations of infected groups compared to the control group. The results of this study indicated that Enterococcus faecalis isolates were highly pathogenic to Clarias gariepinus juveniles. Conclusions: Enterococcus faecalis isolates were multidrug-resistant with a MAR index of 0.64, sensitive to ampicillin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin-cloxacillin, and highly virulent, and pathogenic to Clarias gariepinus juveniles.
Keywords: Enterococcus faecalis; Clarias gariepinus; Infected; Antibiotic; Juvenile
