Aquaculture Enzymes

The most important quality parameter of probiotics is that the vegetative or the spore forms have to be viable to be able to multiply in the gut. Secondly they should be resistant to antibiotics, which are administered so that the gut ecology could be maintained. Genetic engineering would help develop probiotics with special properties like secreting enzymes and vitamins in large quantities. Such products would be the future generation feed additives.

Probiotics have also been used in a big way as pond cleaners in aquaculture. Probiotic bacteria directly uptake or decompose the organic matter or toxic material and improve the quality of water. The microbial cultures produce a variety of enzymes like amylase, protease, lipase, xylanase and cellulase in high concentrations than the native bacteria, which help in degrading waste. These bacteria have a wide range of tolerance for salinity, temperature, pH which usually exist in aquaculture operations. The use of antibiotics in aquaculture is banned due to rejection of export consignments of marine products. Hence usage of probiotics is propogated to counter the effect of viral and bacterial infections in commercial aquaculture. The pond probiotics also have a special blend of denitrifying bacteria that remove the algae's primary source of food, nitrogen from the water. This drastic reduction in nitrogen concentration makes it difficult for the algae to bloom. The balance between phytoplankton, zooplankton and beneficial bacteria during culture period play a crucial role in the maintenance of pond health. There is yet no definitive parameter to judge the efficacy of probiotics. A quick and easy microbiological testing kit would be very useful in evaluating pond health on a daily basis.