Probiotics are defined as intact microbial cells that give benefits to their host animals. It can balance the microbiological conditions of the host, modify the association form with the host or other microbial communities, increase the utilization of feed nutrients or their nutritional value, boost the host’s immune defenses against pathogens, and improve environmental quality.
In shrimp farming, probiotics are living microorganisms that can give benefits for shrimp health and maintain water quality. Probiotics maintain shrimp health by suppressing the growth of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria and boosting the growth of beneficial bacteria in ponds, thus helping to maintain water quality.
Probiotics improve water quality
Probiotics can improve water quality by decomposing organic waste in ponds that comes from feed waste, molting residues, and other organic waste that might lead to phytoplankton blooms. Probiotics manipulate the microorganism population and process excessive organic waste. The organic waste in question are ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, total organic matter (TOM), and many more.
Probiotics maintain shrimp health
Probiotics’ ability to prevent or lower the possibility that shrimp will be infected with diseases caused by bacteria is called the quorum quenching mechanism. It is a mechanism for breaking quorum sensing, which is a communication pathway between bacteria, by destroying signal molecules, restricting the production of signal molecules, or sabotaging the detection of signal molecules.
Probiotics also maintain shrimp health through mechanisms that improve shrimp health and immunity. By using probiotics, farmers can keep the bacteria in the intestine balanced and eliminate any dangerous bacteria. The following is the mechanisms:
- Exclusionary competition with pathogenic bacteria in the digestive system
- The cell wall components of probiotic bacteria stimulate shrimp’s immune system
- Probiotic bacteria can produce antibacterial enzymes and compounds
- Producing beneficial vitamins for shrimp that will improve the nutritional value of feed indirectly
As a measure to handle disease and maintain water quality, the practice of administering probiotics is more environmentally friendly than administering medicines or antibiotics. Probiotics administration can minimize residues or waste substances in the farm ecosystem or shrimp body. Residues or waste substances inside the shrimp’s body cause the shrimp to be unsafe for consumption and therefore hard to be approved as export products.
The numerous benefits of probiotics for shrimp farming make it a very important component. According to Amiin et al. (2023), the practice of administering probiotics has been widely conducted in the shrimp industry by supplementing it through feed. However, farmers must also pay attention to probiotic types based on the bacterial composition, dosage, and administration technique.
References
Amiin, M., et al. (2023). The role of probiotics in Vannamei Shrimp Aquaculture Performance – A Review. Veterinary World, 16(3), 638–649. https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.638-649
