Isolation, Identification and Antibiogram of Bacteria from Imported Frozen Fish at Public Markets in Mosul City, Iraq

The prevalence of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing globally. A total of 100 frozen fish samples were randomly obtained from several public markets in Mosul, Iraq. Biochemical assays and the VITEK 2 system were used to analyze the samples and assess the antibiotic resistance patterns of the bacterial species. The study yielded a total of ten genera and thirteen bacterial species, which were identified as E. coli, Citrobacter braakii, Citrobacter freundii, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae complex, Aeromonas spp., Leuconostic citreum, Enterococcus durans, Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp. and Proteus mirabilis. There was a total of 108 isolates. Escherichia coli was the most often isolated bacterium, accounting for 48.1% of the isolates. Citrobacter spp. was the second most common, with a frequency of 24.0%. The least frequent isolates were Leuconostic citreum, Enterococcus durans, Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., and Proteus mirabilis, each accounting for 1.9% of the isolates. The VITEK 2 systemas used to conduct an antibiotic sensitivity test. The bacterial isolates that were examined exhibited different levels of resistance to sixteen drugs. Pseudomonas spp. exhibited total resistance (100%) to fourteen antibiotics, whilst Klebsiella spp shown full resistance to around six medicines. Enterobacter spp, on the other hand, showed varied degrees of resistance to most of the antibiotics tested. However, E. coli and all other bacterial species that were examined exhibited varying rates of resistance. Ciprofloxacin had the highest efficacy against the studied bacteria, although the effectiveness of the other antibiotics varied depending on the bacterial species. All of the isolates exhibited multidrug resistance, meaning they were resistant to a minimum of three or more drug classes that were examined. Aeromonas spp ad a MAR value of 0.2, whereas the other bacteria tested had MAR values ranging from 0.3 to 0.8.