The sustainability and productivity of shrimp aquaculture are increasingly threatened by disease outbreaks, widespread usage of antibiotics and competitive drive to achieve high feed conversion ratios for minimizing production costs. Although probiotic supplementation is a promising alternative, many commercial formulations lack specificity and efficacy across diverse environmental conditions, geographic locations and types of farming.
Luminis Water Technologies employs next-generation sequencing (NGS) to profile the metagenome of water and gut of various aquaculture stocks under different life stages and culture conditions. Metagenomic data helps us to characterize the microbial community with their functional potential. Further, bioinformatic analysis is used to identify key bacterial taxa associated with immune modulation, digestion efficiency, and pathogen resistance. From these data, we developed a pipeline for designing custom probiotic consortia tailored to specific shrimp cohorts and environmental conditions. More than 1,000 bioactive microbial strains were isolated and cultured, which were then validated in-vitro for traits such as antimicrobial activity, biofilm formation and enzyme production. Subsequent in-vivo trials demonstrated improved growth performance, enhanced immune response and reduced mortality under challenge conditions in various shrimp aquaculture systems. This biological bank serves as a foundation for our probiotic formulations.
Our results demonstrate that NGS-guided probiotic design is a viable strategy in next-generation health management for sustainable aquaculture. This approach paves the way for precision aquaculture practices that reduce antibiotic use, enhance resilience in farming systems and promotes ‘One-health’ mission.