Health & Welfare

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

Although histological studies of shrimp that consumed feed with the suspect ingredients found crys­tals of salts of melamine in antennal glands, the crystals did not affect the shrimp. 

White tail disease in shrimp can result from various conditions. Infectious Myonecrosis is a significant disease of white shrimp in both Latin America and Asia. 

Selenium in ocean fish is essential for human immune function and required for vital tissues like brain and hormone-producing organs. The trace element also can counter some of the impacts of methylmercury in fish. 

Resistance to antibiotics is unavoidable because it is an aspect of bacterial evolution. Resistant microflora have been observed in water that has not had recent contact with antimicrobial agents. 

Sheepshead are robust, adaptable, omnivorous fish that are cheap to feed and can be grown in ponds, cages, tanks or raceways in saltwater or fresh­water. 

Tilapia in culture are affected by bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens. Disease impacts vary de­pending on both environmental and biological factors. 

In a trial, rearing density affected the mean weight and weight gain of pompano, although dif­ferences between treatments be­came apparent toward the end of the study. 

Molecular markers can allow on-farm selection of high-performance families without the need to use costly alternatives such as separate rearing of families/ groups of families or tagging animals. 

Studies indicate dietary arginine supplementation may constitute an effective means of increasing immunocompetency and disease resistance of fish. 

Both bacterial pathogens and chemical residues can affect the quality of farmed tilapia products. In production systems, Vibrio bacteria quickly proliferate following disease outbreaks. 

In Australia, CSIRO is investigating techniques to produce reproductively sterile, all-female shrimp populations through polyploidy, irradiation, or genetic engineering. 

Selective breeding across multiple generations of Nile tilapia representing varied geographic populations yielded the “genetically improved farmed tilapia,” or GIFT tilapia, in the late 1990s. 

A range of commercial immunostimulants derived from microorganisms claim to boost the innate defense mechanisms and have broad-spectrum positive effects in shrimp. 

In a study of the effects of interaction between genotype and dietary protein levels on fish performance, GIFT tilapia had greater growth than red hybrids fed diets with equal or higher protein levels.