Probiotics in shrimp production
Another winner on social media last month was a story about a study undertaken by an international team of researchers from Mexico, Australia and Iran examining the use of commercial and indigenous probiotics in shrimp production.
The group tracked probiotic efficacy and influence on shrimp growth performance, resistance to stressors and immuno-physiological variables to assess the merits of indigenous or commercially generated probiotic supplements.
“As there is no data available, therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the influence of commercial and indigenous probiotic sources of these two mentioned Bacillus species on the growth performance, immunophysiological variables, and stress tolerance in white shrimp, L. vannamei,” the researchers said.
The researchers found that growth and feed parameters were influenced by all four probiotic strains – commercial or indigenous – when compared to shrimp on the control diet. However, results for some factors including growth, final weight and response to stressors were best for shrimp getting the commercial probiotics.
The team concluded:
“Results of this work clearly show that application of two Bacillus bacteria, B. subtilis and B. lichenformis as the commercial products provided a superior efficacy and potency on growth and immunophysiology of L. vannamei compared with the same species of these Bacillus bacteria but with an indigenous source. Also, administration of a mixture of commercial and indigenous sources of these Bacillus species in shrimps provided better growth condition and immune responses than the indigenous Bacillus alone.”
