author(s)
Chandrakant Dhandore, Rahul Kolhe, Urmila Jagtap, Padmakar Deshpande, Samir Jadhav, Dushyant Muglikar, Saba Nalband, Dattatray Gandhale, Sujata Bhave and Prajwalini Mehere

abstract
A study was conducted to record the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Vibrio vulnificus in seafoods and fresh water fish sold in the local markets. Total 300 samples comprised of marine fish (100), fresh water fish (100), marine water (40) and river/lake water (60) were screened for V. vulnificus by isolation and PCR. Observed prevalence of V. vulnificus was 11% in marine fish, 7% in fresh water fish and 5% in water samples. Isolates were 100% sensitive to chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, strepromycin and tetracycline. Few isolates were resistant to rifampicin (56.52%) and amikacin (30.43%). Class1 integron gene was detected in 39.13% isolates. Sequencing of the toxR gene and BLAST analysis revealed identical matches with a number of V. vulnificus toxR gene sequences with 85-99% similarity. Detection of V. vulnificus in seafood and fresh water fish pose public health risk and alarming in the context of food safety.