Poster Presentations

Session Title: The Animal Microbiome
Presentation Date: Monday, August 18, 2008
Poster Board Number: 0380

CHANGES IN THE BACTERIAL POPULATIONS FROM THE SHRIMP LARVAE MICROBIOTA DURING THE PHAGE THERAPY

S. Martínez-Diaz, A. Hipolito-Morales, R. Makarov
Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Technology Dept., La Paz, Mexico

In aquaculture the disease control is a continuous and expensive process that represents approximately the 30 % of the total costs of production. The microbial control it is in fact a routinely process necessary to warrant adequate levels of production. However, there is a growing general appreciation that the solution is in the field of microbial ecology, not in the field of pharmacology. In consequence, new strategies are in development based in the biocontrol and bioremediation. Successful and promising examples of those strategies are the use of probiotics, antagonist and bioremediation bacteria and the phage therapy. In the present study we analyze the effect of a combination of bacteria and phage therapy on the ecological successions in the water and in the microbial populations from the shrimp larvae in a gnotobiotic model and during the intensive shrimp production. Our results indicate that the use of phage therapy does not produce negative effects on the probiotic bacteria and can be an important factor to promote the dominance of a beneficent microbiota. Although we use a mixture of phages with specific lytic effect on Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio natriegens, they produce a reduction in the dominance of other Vibrio species. During our study we detect the presence of lisogenic phages in the controls which induce changes in the virulence of Vibrio, which can explain in part the differences in survival rates recorded for each tank.