| Summary: | <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> can cause serious pneumonitis in humans. The bacterium is also the common causative agent of hospital-acquired multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections. Here we for the first time reported the genetic diversity of <i>K. pneumoniae</i> strains in 14 species of edible aquatic animals sampled in the summer of 2018 and 2019 in Shanghai, China. Virulence-related genes were present in the <i>K. pneumoniae</i> strains (<i>n</i> = 94), including the <i>entB</i> (98.9%), <i>mrkD</i> (85.1%), <i>fimH</i> (50.0%), and <i>ybtA</i> (14.9%) strains. Resistance to sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim was the most prevalent (52.1%), followed by chloramphenicol (31.9%), and tetracycline (27.7%), among the strains, wherein 34.0% had MDR phenotypes. Meanwhile, most strains were tolerant to heavy metals Cu<sup>2+</sup> (96.8%), Cr<sup>3+</sup> (96.8%), Zn<sup>2+</sup> (91.5%), Pb<sup>2+</sup> (89.4%), and Hg<sup>2+</sup> (81.9%). Remarkably, a higher abundance of the bacterium was found in bottom-dwelling aquatic animals, among which mollusk <i>Tegillarca granosa</i> contained <i>K. pneumoniae</i> 8-2-5-4 isolate from serotype K2 (ST-2026). Genome features of the potentially pathogenic isolate were characterized. The enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR)–based genome fingerprinting classified the 94 <i>K. pneumoniae</i> strains into 76 ERIC genotypes with 63 singletons, demonstrating considerable genetic diversity in the strains. The findings of this study fill the gap in the risk assessment of <i>K. pneumoniae</i> in edible aquatic animals.
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