Soo-Il Park

Use of live and dead probiotic cells in tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

To investigate the effect of live and dead probiotic cells on the non-specific immune system of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, probiotics were introduced by feeding either in the form of live or dead cells, or supplying live cells to the rearing water in a closed recirculating system. The probiotics treatment enhanced non-specific immune parameters such as lysozyme activity, migration of neutrophils and plasma bactericidal activity, resulting in improvement of resistance to Edwardsiella tarda infection. Especially, oral administration of live cells seemed to be more effective compared with other probiotic treatments such as oral administration of dead probiotic cells and supply of live probiotic cells to the rearing water. These results indicate that probiotics treatment is promising as an alternative method to antibiotics for disease prevention in aquaculture, and the viability of probiotic bacteria is a key factor to induce more potential effect of probiotics used for fish production.

A procedure for axenic isolation of the marine microalga Isochrysis galbana from heavily contaminated mass cultures

Isochrysis galbana, one of the most widely usedmarine microalgae in the rearing of finfish and shellfish larvae, is masscultured frequently in outdoor tanks. Under prolonged and repeated culture,severe contamination occurs. Axenic isolation of I.galbanafrom such cultures was best achieved by using a ternary procedure involvingpercoll-gradient centrifugation, treatment with antibiotics, and growth on agarmedium. Protozoa and other algae were removed most effectively by isolation ofI. galbana at the 30–40% density layer on apercoll-gradient. Removal of bacteria was accomplished using a mixture of 5antibiotics (250 μg mL−1 ampicillin, 50μg mL−1 gentamycin, 100 μgmL−1 kanamycin, 500 μgmL−1 neomycin, 50 μgmL−1 streptomycin). Axenic colonies were isolated fromasolid medium prepared from 1% purified agar. The ternary procedure isconsideredapplicable to the isolation of other axenic single-celled microalgae fromheavily contaminated cultures.