Issues with Industrial Probiotic Scale-up - Aquaculture Nutrition: Gut Health, Probiotics and Prebiotics - page 347

13 Issues with Industrial Probiotic

Scale-up

Mathieu Castex, Henri Durand and Bernadette Okeke
Lallemand SAS, Blagnac, France

ABSTRACT

Even though more research is necessary to elucidate the exact mechanisms behind the effects of
specific probiotics, some promising candidates for applications in aquaculture have been iden-
tified and considered for industrial scale-up. In the last two decades aquaculture has embraced
the industrial applications of probiotics, and this has truly taken off in some countries in South
East Asia, Central and South America and more recently in Europe. However, the technical
prerequisites for industrial probiotic scale-up that will be detailed at length in this chapter are
overlooked in most cases, resulting in controversies around the actual consistency, efficiency
and most importantly the safety of some of the products being used. This therefore highlights a
crucial need to review the current probiotic product portfolio, define proper regulations and/or
adhere to current regulations, specifically in countries where farmers are currently being pre-
sented with a plethora of so-called probiotics or bioremediation products with inconsistent
quality and unsubstantiated benefits. The other central question that should be asked is: how
can one go from a promising probiotic candidate identified at laboratory level to a commer-
cial industrial scale application? This chapter will address these issues and will attempt to
present some of the most important steps for optimal industrial scale-up of probiotics for use
in aquaculture.

13.1 INTRODUCTION

Probiotics for aquaculture use have been the subject of numerous studies, ranging from the
bare fundamentals to more advanced applications. The increasing number of scientific teams
working on probiotic applications for aquaculture demonstrates the desire of the scientific
community to better understand the gut microbiota of fish and shrimps, the interlink between
the microbial make-up and the host, and the best way to steer the fragile balance with the