Occurrence, virulence, and AMR profile of isolated from shellfish growing areas located along the south-west coast of India.

is a leading cause of human gastroenteritis associated with seafood consumption. The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence and risk assessment of isolated from live Indian black clams, sediment, and water samples collected from shellfish harvesting areas located along the south-west coast of India. Out of the total 72 samples collected, 55.6% revealed the presence of ; the highest occurrence was observed in shellfish samples. The presence of and virulence genes was screened by multiplex PCR. Virulence genes could be detected in 25.8% of the strains; 19.35% of them were positive and 3.2% were positive, while 3.2% of strains exhibited the coexistence of both virulence genes. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determined by the disk diffusion method revealed that 87% of the strains were multiple drug resistant and exhibited 21 diverse resistance patterns. The overall multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index values ranged from 0 to 0.8. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to document the presence of pathogenic and multidrug-resistant in shellfish harvesting areas of the Indian sub-continent. The study reveals possible health hazards associated with consuming shellfish harvested from the study area.