antibiotics Article First Experimental Evidence for the Presence of Potentially Toxic Vibrio cholerae in Snails, and Virulence, Cross-Resistance and Genetic Diversity of the Bacterium in 36 Species of Aquatic Food Animals Dailing Chen 1,†, Xiangyi Li 1,†, Ling Ni 1, Dingxiang Xu 1, Yingwei Xu 1, Yong Ding 1, Lu Xie 2,* and Lanming Chen 1,* 1 Key Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Aquatic Products on Storage and Preservation (Shanghai), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China;
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[email protected] (L.C.) † These authors have contributed equally to this work. Abstract: Vibrio cholerae is the most common waterborne pathogen that can cause pandemic cholera in humans. Continuous monitoring of V. cholerae contamination in aquatic products is crucial for assuring food safety. In this study, we determined the virulence, cross-resistance between antibiotics Citation: Chen, D.; Li, X.; Ni, L.; Xu, and heavy metals, and genetic diversity of V. cholerae isolates from 36 species of aquatic food animals, D.; Xu, Y.; Ding, Y.; Xie, L.; Chen, L. nearly two-thirds of which have not been previously detected. None of the V. cholerae isolates (n = 203) First Experimental Evidence for the harbored the cholera toxin genes ctxAB (0.0%).