Tag probiotics

The Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University has been working to develop methods to culture yellow tang, a top species collected for the aquarium trade. The fish under culture are living longer as practices improve. 

In early 2014, a trial to evaluate the effects of a mixture of Bacillus strains on early mortality syndrome bacteria during the larviculture and nursery phases for shrimp was carried out at a commercial hatchery in Mexico. 

A recent study that evaluated the benefits of using probiotics with a balanced mixture of Bacillus bacteria strains to inhibit pathogenic bacteria in tilapia. 

A range of alternative products is available to improve animal health and water quality, and control pathogen loads. Beneficial microbes produce antimicrobial compounds and suppress pathogen proliferation. 

Probiotics can provide needed micronutrients that prime immune responses in larval fish, thus increasing their survival in culture. Probiotic dosing can be applied via immersion, microcosm approaches and enrichment of live and formulated feeds. 

Research has shown that probiotics and prebiotics can help mediate stress responses and improve disease resistance, growth performance, feed utilization, carcass composition and other traits by stimulating animals’ innate immune systems. 

To develop probiotics for marine shrimp, authors chose a bacterium with high growth velocity and great capacity to inhibit pathogens, among other traits. 

Probiotics administered in feeds provide competitive exclusion of pathogenic bacteria, create conditions unfavorable for pathogens and modulate intestinal immune responses. 

Research with sturgeon and carp species indicated that encapsulated artemia has high potential to carry probiotics or other beneficial microorganisms. 

As the demand for aquaculture products increases, so does the search for environmentally friendly alternatives to antibiotics. Alternatives to antibiotics include dietary prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics. 

There is increasing evidence that natural feed additives can have beneficial effects on aquaculture animals by supporting well-balanced gut microflora and improving gut health. 

The use of probiotics in aquaculture is steadily gaining momentum, supplementing or replacing the use of antimicrobial compounds in disease control. 

Studies at a commercial sturgeon farm that experienced serious disease effects from varied bacterial pathogens in fish yielded positive results for probiotic treatments. 

In a study, three probiotics applied to shrimp pond water throughout a culture period were not effective in preventing Vibrio harveyi outbreaks. 

Probiotics are naturally occurring microbes in cultured animals or their environments that compete with bacterial path­o­gens to favorably alter the rearing environment and improve an­imal health. The success of a pro­biotic strain depends not only upon its stated and actual performance, but also its safety to the target organism, humans, and the surrounding environment.