MONOGLYCERIDE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION IN SHRIMP PRODUCTION TO IMPROVE SURVIVAL RATE AND GROWTH PERFORMANCE

Bacterial diseases are a major threat to shrimp industry that could induce significant economical and production losses in many countries.  Some specific pathogenic bacteria are better known than others, including strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus that cause Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND), or more commonly referred to as Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS).  It is also reported by few aqua research scientists that bacteria, especially Vibrios, also play an important role in White Feces Syndrome (WFS), which is causing a great damage to shrimp production in recent years.

Many feed additives and technologies have been introduced and tested through the years to address such bacterial problems in aquaculture, with one of the most effective solutions being the use of formic acid in either fish or shrimp feed to directly reduce the feed and gut pathogenic bacteria load, or the use of astaxanthin in shrimp aquaculture to improve the animal's immune parameters to fight against diseases.

One of the recent innovations includes the use of monoglycerides of short to medium chain length fatty acids that combines the antibacterial benefits of respective organic acid, with enhanced growth performance improvement. Further extending the benefits of organic acids, the composition of fatty acids is optimized in the monoglyceride technology to deliver a more specific efficacy towards different bacterial pathogens, reducing stress factors and thus increasing animal resilience, to improve performance and yield.

Numerous In vivo tank trials and commercial pond trials on monoglycerides have been conducted across many countries and monoglycerides have shown promising results for shrimp.  With a recommended dosage of 1% (10kg/mt of feed) for liquid form of monoglyceride, meta-analysis results show that a typical survival rate improvement was as high as 10 percentage points.  With improved shrimp resilience, FCR was approximately improved by 8%, allowing ultimately a greater productivity and economical return for shrimp farmers.