Diversity of Vibrio cholerae and prevalence of biomarker genes in the ballast water, Port Blair, South Andaman, India

Abstract

Ship's ballast water is the primary carriers for global transport of non-indigenous marine species, harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens. The rates of non-indigenous species introduced to marine environments via ballast water were estimated to be 30% during the last 20–30 years. In this study, with an aim to detect the transportable bacteriological risk of ships' ballast water for the Andaman sea, the composition and frequency of Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 isolates, abundance of virulence factors and antibiotic resistance pattern were investigated in the ballast water of ships coming from various marine environments to Port Blair, Andaman Islands. The in-situ use of chromogenic agar were investigated to isolate the V. cholerae strains in the ships' ballast water from different regions to the Port Blair. The samples were collected from 10 ships coming from various marine environments were tested. Seventy eight V. cholerae strains were isolated from the ballast water of five ships, out of 10 ballast water samples V. cholerae was not detected in the five samples. Out of 78 isolates, 27 were O1 and 17 were O139 serogroups.