Probiotics in aquaculture: a promising emerging alternative approach

Aquaculture is an important food producing sector to fulfill nutritional food demand of a continuously growing population. However, disease outbreak has become a major problem in aquaculture which cause huge economic loss to aquaculture industries. The use of expensive chemotherapeutic drugs for treatment have negative impacts on the aquatic environment. So there is a growing concern to find other safe, non-antibiotic based and eco-friendly alternative for the treatment of the diseases. The use of probiotics is a promising alternative approach for the control of infectious agents and treatment of diseases. The benefits of probiotic include stimulation of growth, improved digestion, enhanced immune response and recuperate the water quality as well. Probiotics concoct the fish to fight against various pathogens and improves the overall health as they show anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral properties. The use of probiotics in aquaculture is a recent trend and its efficacy in aquatic environment has not been studied extensively. This review paper provides the current knowledge of the use of probiotics in aquaculture, selection criteria, types of probiotics used in aquaculture, their mode of action and administrative methods of probiotics in aquaculture.