Global shrimp farming continues to grow strongly. Asian countries such as China, India, and Vietnam were historically the leading producers. However, in recent years, Ecuador has experienced significant expansion and is now the world’s largest shrimp producing country. One important factor for its success is the absence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains causing Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND), which has severely impacted shrimp production across Asia. AHPND remains one of the most devastating diseases in Asian shrimp farming, prompting the development of various mitigation strategies, with improved nutrition playing a key role. The use of nutritional emulsifiers may contribute to enhanced disease resilience by supporting lipid digestion, hepatopancreatic function, and overall shrimp health. This study investigates the effects of a high-hydrophile emulsifier on the health of challenged and unchallenged white-leg shrimp, in both high- and low-marine ingredient diets.
An eight -week feeding trial in juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei (~1 g) was conducted in a 2×4 factorial design to evaluate two diet type s: high or low in marine ingredients (T1-T4 with 15% fishmeal and 1% fish oil, versus T5-T8 with 7% fishmeal and 0.5% fish oil, respectively), with per diet type four emulsifier levels (T1 & T5: 0 ppm; T2 & T6: 500 ppm; T3 & T7: 750 ppm; T4 & T8: 1000 ppm). Health was assessed via hepatopancreas lipid, glycogen, digestive enzyme activity , and immune parameters. A Vibrio parahaemolyticus (AHPND) challenge tested pathogen clearance. Growth, and survival were also recorded and analyzed using two-way ANOVA (α = 0.05).
A diet low in marine ingredients significantly decreased growth performance (P<0.05). Inclusion of the nutritional emulsifier significantly improved growth in both diet types, with the best results observed for 750 and 1000 ppm (P<0.05). At i nclusion of 750 and 1000 ppm, the emulsifier enhanced immune and antioxidant parameters, including hemocyte count, hemolymph protein, lysozyme, phenoloxidase , superoxide dismutase, and glutathione activity (P<0.05). Digestive enzyme activities (lipase, amylase, and trypsin) were also increased significantly by addition of the nutritional emulsifier (P<0.05). Collectively, these improvements resulted in higher survival and greater disease resilience in both challenged and unchallenged shrimp (P<0.05; Figure 1). Additionally, the bacterial count in the hepatopancreas was significantly lower in shrimp fed emulsifier-supplemented diets (P<0.05).The use of a nutritional emulsifier at 750–1000 ppm can play an important role in increasing the productivity and resilience of the global shrimp sector.