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Pathogenic Vibrio species have long posed a major challenge in shrimp aquaculture, while traditional antibiotic treatments are associated with numerous limitations, creating an urgent demand for novel preventive and therapeutic approaches. The present study employed in vivo and in vitro experiments to comprehensively evaluate the feasibility of butyric acid supplementation in Litopenaeus vannamei culture. In vitro antimicrobial assays demonstrated that under acidic conditions (pH 6), the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of butyric acid against V. parahaemolyticus were 20 mM and 40 mM, respectively. In contrast, under neutral conditions (pH 7), the MIC and MBC increased to 320 mM and 640 mM. At both MIC and MBC concentrations, butyric acid completely suppressed bacterial growth and significantly disrupted biofilm formation and cellular integrity. In vivo shrimp feeding trials revealed that dietary supplementation with 0.5 and 2.0 g/kg butyric acid significantly enhanced percent weight gain (PWG) and specific growth rate (SGR) ( P < 0.05). 0.5 g/kg butyric acid supplementation could reduce the feed conversion ratio ( P < 0.05). The addition of sodium butyrate (in its sodium salt form) significantly reduced the abundance of intestinal Vibrio, decreasing from 17.45 in the CK group to 8.63 %(SB0.5), 5.54 %(SB2.0), and 0.62 %(SB5.0) in the respective treatment groups, while promoting the proliferation of beneficial bacteria, particularly Verrucomicrobiota ( P < 0.05). Additionally, butyric acid supplementation significantly decreased the relative abundance of Candidatus Aquiluna and Tenacibaculum in aquaculture water ( P < 0.05). KEGG pathway of water microbiota showed that dietary supplementation with 0.5 and 2.0 g/kg sodium butyrate markedly exhibited significant enrichment in prodigiosin biosynthesis, while 5.0 g/kg butyric acid supplementation showed a marked reduction in the Thiamine metabolism pathway, which is critical for energy metabolism ( P < 0.05). This study not only offered a novel feed additive option for healthy shrimp aquaculture but also established a theoretical foundation for its application.
Yin et al. (Mon,) studied this question.