Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of , and Derived from Farm-Raised Red Hybrid Tilapia ( spp.) and Asian Sea Bass (, Bloch 1970) on the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Antibiotics are widely used in intensive fish farming, which in turn increases the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria in the aquatic environment. The current study investigates the prevalence and determines the antimicrobial susceptibility of , , and in farmed fishes on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Over a period of 12 months, 32 aquaculture farms from the Malaysian states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, and Perak were sampled. Both and were highly resistant to erythromycin, ampicillin, tetracycline, and trimethoprim, while was highly resistant to ampicillin and streptomycin. Resistance to the antibiotics listed as the highest priority and critically important for human therapy, such as colistin in (18.1%) and (20%) in fish, is a growing public health concern. The multi-drug resistance (MDR) levels of and in tilapia were 46.5% and 77.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, the MDR levels of , , , and in Asian seabass were 34%, 100%, 21.6%, 8.3% and 16.7%, respectively. Our findings provide much-needed information on AMR in aquaculture settings that can be used to tailor better strategies for the use of antibiotics in aquaculture production at the local and regional levels.