There has been tremendous growth of aquaculture industry in recent times.<\/p>\n
Though such industries enable controlled growth and close monitoring of the growth, they require a lot of financial inputs for procurement of good quality seeds, maintenance of growth conditions, and disease control & management.<\/p>\n
The latter adds most to the total expenditure of the industry.<\/p>\n
Disease management in aquaculture is pretty tricky as the aquatic ecosystem is homogenous, and once a pathogen is introduced into the environment, it is almost impossible to restrict its spread.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, antibiotics, hormones, and some salt compounds have been used to prevent rather than treat the diseases.<\/p>\n
However, this adds exorbitantly to the total expenditure in the overall process, resulting in increased product costs.<\/p>\n
Probiotics are the easiest and cheapest way to overcome this problem.<\/p>\n
Probiotic is a live microbial feed supplement that beneficially affects intestinal health.<\/p>\n
Unlike birds and terrestrial animals, lactic acid bacteria are subdominant in the gut of aquatic animals. Aquatics probiotics mainly consist of Bacillus sp<\/em>,\u00a0Enterococcus sp<\/em>,\u00a0Carnobacterium sp<\/em>\u00a0& few yeast species.<\/p>\n They can be easily isolated from the gut of healthy fishes and shrimps. Commercially available products are usually a combination of these organisms along with few nutrients.<\/p>\n These apply multiple approaches in disease management using principles of antagonism, competitive exclusion, improving immunity, and as an effect of its antibacterial and antiviral activity.<\/p>\n