Antibiotic Sensitivity Screening of spp. and spp. Isolated from Marine Bivalve Molluscs Reveal Presence of CTX-M-Producing .

spp. are a major cause of both nosocomial and community acquired infections, with being responsible for most human infections. Although spp. are present in a variety of environments, their distribution in the sea and the associated antibiotic resistance is largely unknown. In order to examine prevalence of and related species in the marine environment, we sampled 476 batches of marine bivalve molluscs collected along the Norwegian coast. From these samples, ( = 78), ( = 41), ( = 33), ( = 1), ( = 38) and ( = 13) were isolated. The number of positive samples increased with higher levels of faecal contamination. We found low prevalence of acquired resistance in all isolates, with seven isolates showing resistance to more than one antibiotic class. The complete genome sequence of cefotaxime-resistant isolate 2016-1400 was obtained using Oxford Nanopore and Illumina MiSeq based sequencing. The 2016-1400 genome had two contigs, one chromosome of 5,088,943 bp and one plasmid of 191,744 bp and belonged to ST1035. The β-lactamase genes and as well as the heavy metal resistance genes , and were carried on a plasmid highly similar to one found in strain C17KP0055 from South-Korea recovered from a blood stream infection. The present study demonstrates that are prevalent in the coastal marine environment and that bivalve molluscs may act as a potential reservoir of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing that may be transmitted through the food chain.