The Fisheries Research Institute had created a yogurt-based feed for fish and shrimp that boosts their immune systems and might help fish farmers whose crops are affected by disease, the institute said on Friday.
The institute, which is affiliated with the Council of Agriculture, said that the feed proved especially effective in mitigating diseases that proliferate during hot weather.
It also accelerates the animals’ growth, the institute said.
Photo courtesy of the Fisheries Research Institute via CNA
Huang Mei-ying (黃美瑩), a research fellow in the institute’s aquaculture division, said it developed the feed after commercial fish farmers in Kaohsiung complained about bacterial infections that weighed on their revenue.
The development was based on the findings of an earlier study by the institute that showed that B4 lactic acid bacteria — a natural probiotic extracted from bass — reduced the effect of aquatic pathogens, Huang said.
Researcher working on the study mixed an enzyme secreted by the bacteria with sucrose and found that medically active glucan was produced in the process, Huang said, adding that the yogurt-based feed made use of this process.
The development was also based on studies showing that a combination of probiotics, such as lactic acid bacteria, and prebiotics, such as glucan, yielded the best results, Huang said.
For the newly developed feed, researchers added B4 bacteria to yogurt, Huang said, adding that the feed is the result of more than a year of research.
The mixture was tested on a variety of species, showing that farm-raised orange-spotted grouper fed with the mixture grew faster than usual and had better defenses against pathogens, while testing the mixture on tilapia on a farm in Hunei District (湖內) also showed positive results, Huang said.
The newly developed mixture comprised 1 percent of the feed given to the tilapia over two months, Huang said, adding that when harvested at the end of May, they weighed 570g on average and did not have any dangerous pathogens.
A control group was harvested in the middle of June, weighing 467g on average, and many of them were found to be infected with Streptococcus bacteria, Huang said.
During an earlier experiment, tilapia fed with the mixture were infected with the same bacteria, but recovered within three days when given medicine, compared with a seven-day recovery period in the control group, Huang said.
The experiments showed that fish fed with the mixture were bigger and healthier, which would make the feed financially viable for farmers, Huang said.
The mixture, costing NT$0.5 per kilogram, is far cheaper than other mixtures of probiotics and prebiotics, Huang said, estimating that farmers who use the feed would earn an extra NT$150,000 per hectare.
The mixture, for which the institute filed a patent application with the Intellectual Property Office, would be commercially manufactured by four companies, Huang said, adding that the institute had transferred its cultures to the firms.
The technology could also be used in other fields of aquafarming and help reduce the amount of chemicals used to keep fish healthy, Huang said.
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