Professor of IPB Utilizes Microbe for Fishery Ponds
Permanent Professor of Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Prof. Dr. Ir. Widanarni, M.Si, utilizes microbes to improve the productivity of the aquaculture fishery sector. In her scientific oration material entitled "Microbial Cultivation for Sustainable Aquaculture", Prof. Widanarni describes her research on the use of prebiotics and probiotics for the cultivation of vaname shrimp, grouper fish and other aquaculture fish.
In her scientific oration at Auditorium Andi Hakim Nasoetion, Dramaga IPB Campus, Bogor (24/2), Prof. Widanarni said that disease attacks have caused a loss of global aquaculture production of 6 billion dollars per year. "One approach that can be done in facing the challenges in aquaculture is by increasing the role of microbes in aquaculture systems," she said.
She and her research team began to explore the potential of microbes to improve the reproduction performance of fish and shrimp and utilize microbes to improve the quality of the cultivation environment. She said the potential of microbes to support aquaculture is to be used as biocontrol pathogens and immune system stimulants to protect fish and shrimp against disease.
In addition, microbes can also be promoters of growth in order to improve the efficiency of feed use through improved enzyme activity and feed digestibility, as well as the potential use of microbes in reducing the dependence on fish meal in the feed.
Prof. Widanarni performs microbial selection that can be used as a probiotic that benefits the cultivated organism as its host. Furthermore, the role of probiotics can be increased through the application of prebiotics, i.e. food that can not be digested, but able to provide beneficial effects for its host by stimulating the growth and activity of certain bacteria in the intestine which can improve the host health.
Thus, microbial-based cultivation through the modulation of the role of probiotics and prebiotics is expected to become a major alternative for sustainable aquaculture in the future.
"Examples include Vibrio infection controls on tiger shrimp, vaname shrimp and grouper fish, infection control of Aeromonas hydrophila in catfish and carp, as well as infection of Streptoccocus agalactiae on tilapia.
The application of probiotics and prebiotics has also been tested effective in controlling viral infections such as IMNV and WSSV on vaname shrimp," Prof Widanarni explained.
She added that the application of probiotics isolated from the digestive tract of grouper duck with prebiotics from sweet potato extract yielded better growth rate, protein retention and feed conversion ratio than control. The probiotic application of Bacillus NP5 isolated from the digestive tract of tilapia, prebiotic from sweet potato extract, and sinbiotik have been proved to be able to increase the population of intestinal microbes, digestive enzyme activity, feed digestion, and growth performance of tilapia fish with the best result on sinbiotic treatment.
"Probiotics isolated from the digestive tract of vaname shrimp have been shown to increase the activity of digestive enzymes, nutrient digestibility and vaname shrimp growth performance," she said.
Meanwhile, to improve the performance of reproduction, Prof. Widanarni carried out a probiotic application of Bacillus sp. NP5 which was able to increase the index value of gonad maturity, fecundity, and the degree of hatching ori chef eggs.
To improve the cultivation environment, Prof. Widanarni introduced biofloc technology, i.e. nitrogen wastes recycled into microbial proteins that can then be eaten by fish. Application of biofloc technology on catfish culture is able to reduce the cultivation waste indicated by lower ammonia value, and result in better cultivation performance, with more uniform catfish size and lower cannibalism level.
"With these findings, we conclude that the role of microbes is crucial for the production and sustainability of aquaculture, which should be part of integrated and holistic aquaculture management. It needs to map intestinal microflora and aquatic microbes to see the community structure, diversity and various factors associated with modulation.
"This will facilitate the development of new probiotic findings and provide guidance to prebiotic designs that match the target of beneficial microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract," she said. (TK)
