In this study, a collection of 130 E. coli isolated from white-leg shrimp collected from three wet markets and two supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City was analysed to examine their antibiotic resistance characteristics and the transferability of resistance markers. High levels of resistance to ampicillin, tetracyclines, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, nalidixic acid and chloramphenicol were observed. The percentage of multiple drug resistance (4 to 10 tested antibiotics) was 73.8%. The multiple

more »

... biotic resistance (MAR) index values of 0.4 to 0.73 (of each sample collection site) indicated that these isolates were exposed to high risk sources of contamination where antibiotics were commonly used. Conjugation experiments demonstrated the successful transfer of all or part of the resistance phenotypes of shrimp isolates to the human recipient strains