Environmental pollution and food safety are two interconnected global health challenges that threaten public health. While pollutants such as heavy metals and legacy organic compounds have been well studied, emerging pollutants, particularly those linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), are gaining increasing attention. Antibiotic resistance, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a critical public health threat in the 21st century, undermines the effectiveness of numerous therapeutic agents used to treat infections (Collaborators, 2022; O'Neill, 2016). Among these, carbapenems are essential last-resort antibiotics used to treat infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens (Chen et al., 2023). However, the growing prevalence of carbapenem-resistant bacteria, particularly carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), has become a pressing concern (Ma et al., 2023; Macesic et al., 2025). Treatment options for CRE infections are extremely limited, which has prompted the WHO to categorize carbapenem-resistant pathogens as critical priority threats, underscoring the urgent need for sustained investment in the development of novel therapeutic options (Macesic et al., 2025; WHO, 2019). Resistance to carbapenems is primarily mediated by three types of carbapenemases: New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamases (NDM), Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPC), and carbapenem-OXA-48-type β-lactamases (Iovleva and Doi, 2017). Of these, NDM-producing strains have become increasingly prevalent globally, particularly in regions such as China and South Asia (Wu et al., 2019). To date, 75 variants of NDM have been identified (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pathogens/refgene/#NDM), with NDM-1 and NDM-5 being the most prevalent (Jean et al., 2022; Wu et al., 2019).

While NDM-producing bacteria have been reported in various ecological niches, including human and animal populations, retail meat, companion animals, and environmental samples (Huang et al., 2023; Jean et al., 2022), there has been limited investigation into the presence of NDM-producing pathogens in aquatic products, especially shrimp. Shrimp, a highly nutritious food product, is commonly consumed worldwide (Abuzar et al., 2023; FAO, 2022). However, the presence of various antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), including blaCTX-M, mcr-1, blaKPC, and blaNDM, in shrimp, has been reported in recent years, representing a significant public health risk (Thornber et al., 2020; Ye et al., 2024; Young et al., 2022).

Although some studies have reported the sporadic detection of NDM-producing bacteria in shrimp (Briet et al., 2018; Morris et al., 2023; Parker et al., 2024), the prevalence data on carbapenem-resistant bacteria in shrimp, particularly from China, remain scarce. China, as the world's largest producer of shrimp, accounting for 70 % of global shrimp production in 2020 (Abuzar et al., 2023; FAO, 2022; N'Souvi et al., 2024), represents a critical focal point for understanding the contamination of NDM-producing bacteria in shrimp. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the prevalence of blaNDM-carrying pathogens in shrimp collected from local markets in Guangzhou, one of China's major metropolitan areas. Additionally, we aim to characterize the molecular features of blaNDM-positive isolates to better understand the potential implications for public health.