Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria isolated from aquatic environments in Brazil: a systematic review

Abstract

This article discusses antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from aquatic environments in Brazil, taking into account isolation sites, the main reported antimicrobial agents, the genes involved in resistance, the most prevalent bacterial genera and species, and the main mechanisms of resistance. This review is based upon specialized literature, consulting published scientific articles selected from the SciELO, PubMed and LILACS databases. Based upon the inclusion criteria, we selected 21 articles, most (61.6%) were from PubMed, with the highest prevalence for work done in the Southeast region (71.4%) in freshwater environments (71.4%), and the major focus on farm ponds (28.6%). Gram-negative bacteria are the most studied (71.4%) and the Aeromonas spp. was the one found most frequently (19.0%). The most frequently used antimicrobials were chloramphenicol (81.0%), gentamicin (76.2%), sulpha/trimethroprim (71.4%), ampicillin (61.9%) and tetracycline (71.4%); and the ones with higher prevalence of resistance were chloramphenicol (58.8%), sulpha/trimethroprim (78.5%) and ampicillin (84.6%). It was found that studies on resistance in other aquatic environments have not yet been conducted in Brazil, especially in the North and Northeast regions, where irregular rainfall distribution leads to the use of reservoirs as supply sources during the dry season, highlighting concerns regarding the quality, contamination and maintenance of these resources, as the water is intended for human use or for production purposes.