| During the past 20 years, aquaculture industry has been growing tremendously, especially that of marine fish, shrimps and bivalves. But, as with many other industries, this rapid growth has brought with it the problem of environmental pollution. Contamination of coastal waters due to aquaculture is posing serious concerns among law makers as well as scientists. The coastal environment has been seriously damaged, often resulting in disease outbreaks. Recently, shrimp culture all over the world has been frequently affected by viral and bacterial diseases inflicting huge loss. In China, the production of shrimps decreased seriously. The production of shrimps was 200,000 tons in 1992, but was only 55,000 tons in 1994. Pathogenic microorganisms implicated in these outbreaks were viruses, bacteria, rickettsia, mycoplasma, algae, fungi and protozoan parasites. For preventing and controlling diseases, a host of antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals were used possibly creating antibiotic resistant bacteria, persistence of pesticides and other toxic chemicals in aquatic environment and creating human health hazards. Thus, how to improve the ecological environment of aquaculture has become the focus of attention of international aquaculture. |
| Now, researchers are trying to use probiotic bacteria in aquaculture to improve water quality by balancing bacterial population in water and reducing pathogenic bacterial load. Researchers are increasingly paying more attention to this new approach (ecological aquaculture ), and have made considerable headway. This review, on the basis of the new research findings in probiotics applied to aquaculture, analyze and summarize the mechanism of probiotic action in aquaculture. |