The use of probiotics during the nursery rearing of the pink shrimpFarfantepenaeus brasiliensis(Latreille, 1817) in a zero exchange system

The present work evaluated the use of probiotics during the nursery rearing of the pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis, in a zero exchange aerobic heterotrophic culture system during 30 days. Three replicate tanks were randomly assigned to the following treatments: (1) Bacillus spp. mixture (Sanolife Pro--W®), (2) Bacillus sp., Enterococcus sp., Lactobacillus spp. mixture (Biomin Start-grow®), (3) Bacillus cereus var. toyoi and (4) control treatment (without probiotic addition). Bacteriological analysis monitored the abundance of presumptive Vibrio spp. in the water of experimental tanks. For the immunological analysis, shrimp haemolymph was collected to determine the granular haemocyte count and total protein concentration. Results showed that mean final weight and specific growth rate of shrimp in the probiotic treatments were significantly higher. Furthermore, shrimp reared in the probiotic treatments showed higher levels of total protein and granular haemocyte. The bacteriological analysis showed that the concentration of Vibrio spp. measured in probiotic treatment tanks was lower than that recorded in the control tanks.