ARTICLE FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2024 69 elements such as vitamins, mineral elements, and proteins. The major purpose of using synbiotic is to maintain a favourable relationship between beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms that constitutes the flora of the intestine and skin of aquatic animals. Therefore, a synbiotic is expected to have a few specific properties to impart a beneficial effect. These properties include a) Competitive exclusion b) Antagonism to pathogens c) Adhesion and d) Immunity stimulation. Synbiotics are designed to beneficially affect the host such as Improving survival and implantation of probiotics in the colon, selectively stimulating the growth or activating the metabolism of health-promoting bacteria (probiotics) in the colon and improving the microbial composition of the GI tract. COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW OF PROBIOTIC, PREBIOTIC AND SYNBIOTICS Unlike probiotics, prebiotics do not add to an existing colony of bacteria, rather they provide nourishment for existing flora, allowing the colony to grow naturally and flourish. During synbiotic dietary treatment, prebiotics in the form of synbiotics are hydrolysed to their respective sugars in the intestinal tract of the host and are subsequently utilized as a source of carbon to increase the biomass of bacteria. As probiotic is principally active in the small intestine and prebiotic is only effective in the large intestine, the combination of the two may give a synergistic influence. Probiotic is a live microbial food ingredient which is beneficial to host while prebiotic is a non-digestible food ingredient which beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and activity of one or a limited number of microorganisms in the colon having the potential to improve host well-being nevertheless, synbiotic is a mixture of probiotic and prebiotic which beneficially affect the host and thus improving host health. Effects of synbiotics application in shrimp culture: • Synbiotics beneficially affects the host by improving the survival and implantation of live microbial dietary supplements in the gastrointestinal tract and improves digestion and absorption of the host. • Synbiotics serve as a source of exoenzymes which induces the hosts' digestive enzymes and improves the absorptive ability of the host. • Synbiotics produces substances that stimulate the immune systems, thus enhancing the host protection against infection. Synbiotics stimulate the immunity of organisms in two ways. The flora from synbiotic migrates throughout the gut wall and multiplies to a limited extent and when they die, they release antigens which when absorbed stimulate the immune system. • Synbiotics can trigger encapsulation and phagocytosis processes in shrimp. • Synbiotics were found to be useful not only as food but also as biological controllers of fish disease and activators of nutrient regeneration. • Deterioration of soil and water quality in aquaculture systems is often associated with the decomposition of organic matter over time. The use of synbiotics can enhance the rate of degradation of organic matter, increase the level of dissolved oxygen, eliminate undesirable waste products (nitrite ammonia, carbon dioxide, and sulfide), reduce the proportion of blue-green algae and increase aquatics production. • The application of synbiotics have proven to be effective in shrimp hatcheries by outcompeting pathogenic bacteria for nutrients and other resources, thus reducing the risk of disease and improving larval growth.
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