Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1
New Strategies for the Control of
Bacterial Infections in Marine Fish
Larval Rearing
José Pintado,
1,
* María J. Prol,
1
José Luis Balcázar,
1,2
Miquel Planas
1
and
Pavlos Makridis
3
INTRODUCTION
One of the limiting steps of marine fi sh aquaculture expansion is the supply
of juvenile fi sh. Intensive fi sh larvae production is highly susceptible to the
proliferation of bacteria, which may cause poor growth or mass mortality
of the larvae. In most cases, mortality cannot be attributed to specifi c
pathogens, but to the proliferation of opportunistic bacteria (Olafsen, 1993,
2001). The rearing environment, with high larval densities and high load of
organic matter (from faeces, dead larvae, debris, or from live feed) is highly
susceptible to bacterial growth. The control of bacteria in rearing systems
and live feed production is an important factor for the survival of fi sh larvae
(Planas and Cunha, 1999; Skjermo and Vadstein, 1999; Dhert et al., 2001) and
the increase in survival of larvae treated with antibiotics supports this fact
(Gatesoupe, 1982, 1989; Pérez-Benavente and Gatesoupe, 1988).
In aquatic environments, the use of antibiotics induces the development
of resistances (Sarter and Guichard, 2009, Volume 1 of this Series), which
can be transferred to other bacteria, including pathogenic bacteria to fi sh
or even humans (Cabello, 2006; Sarter et al., 2007). Therefore, the use of
antibiotics should be kept to a minimum. Vaccination of juveniles has
1
Instituto de Investigacións Mariñas (CSIC), Eduardo Cabello nº 6, 36208 Vigo, Galicia, Spain
2
Present address: Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua. Parc Científi c i Tecnològic de la Universitat
de Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
3
Institute of Aquaculture, Hellenic Center for Marine Research, P.O. Box 2214, Iraklion, Crete,
Greece
*Corresponding author: E-mail:
pintado@iim.csic.es
