{"id":6882,"date":"2026-06-09T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/new\/wordpress\/bacteriophage-cocktail-shows-promise-against-vibrio-outbreaks-in-shrimp-farms\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:51:39","slug":"bacteriophage-cocktail-shows-promise-against-vibrio-outbreaks-in-shrimp-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/bacteriophage-cocktail-shows-promise-against-vibrio-outbreaks-in-shrimp-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"Bacteriophage cocktail shows promise against Vibrio outbreaks in shrimp farms"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Opting for bacteriophages for shrimp post larvae (PLs) can yield a protective effect against pathogenic Vibrio bacteria.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Biological Research Center of the Northwest, the Autonomous University of Nuevo Le\u00f3n, the Food and Development Research Center AC and the University of Girona evaluated the protective effects of a cocktail of bacteriophages in\u00a0L. vannamei<\/em>\u00a0post larvae against Vibrio bacteria. The scientists found that treating the PLs with bacteriophages kept Vibrio infections at bay and reduced their concentrations in culture water \u2013 without harming the surrounding bacterial communities.<\/p>\n

Vibrio populations and bacteriophages<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Vibrio bacteria are widely disseminated in ocean environments and several Vibrio species are responsible for disease outbreaks in marine animals \u2013 especially penaeid shrimp, different fish species and molluscs. Some strains of\u00a0V. harveyi<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0V. campbellii<\/em>\u00a0have been implicated in disease outbreaks in shrimp hatcheries and grow-out facilities around the world. They\u2019ve also been associated with coral infections.<\/p>\n

“We used culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to explore their effects on bacterial communities associated with shrimp post larvae,” the researchers said. According to the results of the study, administering the phage cocktail drastically reduced Vibrio counts in both\u00a0in vitro<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0in vivo\u00a0<\/em>environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially observed that both phages exhibited\u00a0in vitro<\/em>\u00a0lytic (viral reproduction) activities against several Vibrio species isolated from AHPND -infected shrimp farms, such as\u00a0V. alginolyticus<\/em>\u00a0,\u00a0V. diabolicus<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0V. parahaemolyticus<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bacteriophage<\/p>\n

Bacteriophages are a novel alternative to antibiotics as they can infect and weaken specific bacteria species<\/p>\n

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They also highlight that both phages remained stable under different temperature and salinity conditions. The phage cocktail was also resilient to UV exposure and was tolerant to chloroform.<\/p>\n

In vivo<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0evaluation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During the\u00a0in vivo<\/em>\u00a0evaluation, shrimp PLs were obtained from a commercial hatchery and randomly distributed between four treatment groups. The first cohort (PVAB) was infected with a mixture of Vibrio bacteria (V. alginolyticus<\/em>,\u00a0V. diabolicus<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0V. parahaemolyticus<\/em>). No phage treatment was provided. The second cohort (PVAP) was infected with the Vibrio mixture and treated with a phage cocktail. The third cohort (PVAT) included shrimp that were infected with the Vibrio mixture and treated with a second phage cocktail. The control cohort had shrimp that were not infected with Vibrio and received no phage treatment.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that Vibrio counts in culture water were significantly higher in the phage-free cohorts than in those treated with the bacteriophage cocktail. “Likewise, no phages were detected in the untreated groups, which indicates that there is no natural presence of them, while the groups treated with the phage cocktail showed a stable density,” they reported.<\/p>\n

According to the study results, the phage-treated shrimp also exhibited less damage and greater lipid accumulation in hepatopancreas B cells, after a histopathological examination.<\/p>\n

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Shrimp post larvae<\/p>\n

Shrimp PLs that were treated with a bacteriophage cocktail were more resilient against Vibrio infections\u00a0\u00a9 Homegrown Shrimp<\/p>\n

Impact of phages on the bacterial community<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To determine the phages\u2019 impact on the bacterial community structure within the shrimp gut ecosystem, the scientists used 16S rRNA gene analysis. Comparative analysis showed statistically significant differences in bacterial communities between the phage-treated and untreated groups. Taxonomic analysis \u2013 which categorised bacteria according at the family level \u2013 showed high concentrations of Rhodobacteraceae, regardless of the applied treatment. The researchers also reported a drastic reduction Vibrionaceae bacteria in the groups treated with phages.<\/p>\n

The researchers concluded that administering bacteriophages decreased the population of potentially pathogenic Vibrio strains (V. alginolyticus<\/em>,\u00a0V. diabolicus<\/em>, and\u00a0V. parahaemolyticus<\/em>), and also decreased other Vibrio species like as\u00a0V. campbellii<\/em>,\u00a0V. jasicida<\/em>,\u00a0V. maritimus<\/em>,\u00a0V. thalassae<\/em>, and\u00a0V. xuii<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth phages had the ability to inhibit the growth of pathogenic Vibrio species under\u00a0in vitro<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0in vivo<\/em>\u00a0conditions. In addition, the phage cocktail efficiently and selectively inhibited Vibrionaceae populations in shrimp post larvae,\u201d they conclude.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, this characteristic can be advantageous since it allows specific pathogens to be attacked without altering other bacterial populations. \u201cOur phage cocktail offers an alternative against infections caused by Vibrio species due to the bacterial reduction and proliferation of phages that remain in the system, avoiding possible reinfections by natural populations of Vibrionaceae or resistant mutant strains.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Opting for bacteriophages for shrimp post larvae (PLs) can yield a protective effect against pathogenic Vibrio bacteria. Researchers from the … <\/i>Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[352,351,395,350,358],"tags":[360,363,355],"class_list":["post-6882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquatic-economy","category-articles","category-economic-production","category-news-and-articles","category-shrimp","tag-shrimp","tag-363","tag-355"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6883,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions\/6883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btagro.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}