A combinatorial approach using probiotics and curcumin to inhibit pathogens in farmed fish

• Main Author: Sun, Mingyue
• Other Authors: Loo Say Chye Joachim
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156394
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There has been an increase in the demand of farmed aquaculture in the last few decades. Unfortunately, a significant amount of the total production had been either lost or wasted as a result of pathogen outbreaks. Traditionally, aquaculture farmers have dealt with such outbreaks by administering antibiotics to the farmed aquacultures. However, these antibiotics will no longer be feasible in the near future due to antibiotic resistance and the ban in usage of such antibiotics by increasing number of countries around world. Hence, there is a need to search for a sustainable replacement of antibiotics. This report proposes the use of probiotics and curcumin as a preventive formulation to curb such pathogen outbreaks as both elements have proven anti-microbial effects separately and are also naturally occurring hence suitable for agricultural use. Pathogen inhibition effects of selected probiotic strains and curcumin are tested through various in vitro assays such as well diffusion, bacterial lawn, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) methods. Best performing probiotic strains were combined with curcumin and the evaluated for their combinatory performance against pathogens. It was found that a combinatorial approach using probiotics and curcumin had better inhibition effect than when tested separately. Further in vivo testing is required in order to conclude the effectiveness of the formula when administered to aquacultures.