The prevalence of opportunistic patkogens was monitored in water and sediment samples collected from paddy cum shrimp farms adjoining the Vembanadu Lake during the culture period. The physio-chemical parameters of the environmental samples were also analyzed through the study period so as to find out any possible correlation between the physio-chemical parameters and the prevalence of opportunistic pathogens in the system Escherichia coli isolations were consistently high in all the samples analyzed.High prevalence of opportunistic pathogens such as Vibrio, Aeromonas and Pseudomonas were also noticed in these paddy cum shrimp farms. However, the environmental parameters did not show any significant variation during the study period and no noticeable disease outbreaks were recorded. E. coli strains isolated from the environmental samples were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility tests and the potential risk posed by the isolates were accessed using multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) indexing. Results of the antimicrobial susceptibility tests revealed the incidence of multiple antibiotic resistant E. coli, originating from high risk sources of contamination. The present findings suggest the need for maintaining the stability of the extensive aquaculture systems and the reduction of the unnecessary usage of antibiotics in them.
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