The bioflocs technology (BFT) for shrimp production has been proposed as a sustainable practice capable of reducing environmental impacts and preventing pathogen introduction. The microbial community ...associated with BFT not only detoxifies nutrients, but also can improve feed utilization and animal growth. Biofloc system contains abundant number of bacteria of which cell wall consists of various components such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide, peptidoglycan and β‐1, 3‐glucans, and is known as stimulating nonspecific immune activity of shrimp. Bioflocs, therefore, are assumed to enhance shrimp immunity because they consume the bioflocs as additional food source. Although there are benefits for having an in situ microbial community in BFT systems, better understanding on these microorganisms, in particular molecular level, is needed. A fourteen‐day culture trial was conducted with postlarvae of Litopenaeus vannamei in the presence and absence of bioflocs. To determine mRNA expression levels of shrimp, we selected six genes (prophenoloxidase1, prophenoloxidase2, prophenoloxidase activation enzyme, serine proteinase1, masquerade‐like proteinase, and ras‐related nuclear protein) which are involved in a series of responses known as the prophenoloxidase (proPO) cascade, one of the major innate immune responses in crustaceans. Significant differences in shrimp survival and final body weights were found between the clear water and in the biofloc treatments. mRNA expression levels were significantly higher in the biofloc treatment than the clear water control. These results suggest that the presence of bioflocs in the culture medium gives positive effect on growth and immune‐related genes expression in L.vannamei postlarvae.
Hepatopancreatic parvovirus (HPV) of shrimp is distributed worldwide and the entire genome of Thailand and Indian strains (PmDNV) and one Australian strain (PmergDNV) have now been reported. The ...complete nucleotide sequence of a HPV strain isolated from the fleshy prawn Fenneropenaeus chinensis in Korea (FcDNV) was determined and compared to previously reported sequences. The entire genome of FcDNV contains 6,336 nucleotides, with 40% G+C content, which is the biggest of the known HPV strains. The HPV genome has three open reading frames (ORFs) with a slight overlap between the first and second ORFs. The three ORFs encode the NS2 and NS1 proteins and VP that consist of 425, 578, and 820 amino acids, respectively. Among the three proteins, the NS1 protein shows the highest sequence similarity to the NS1 protein of other known HPV strains, followed by the NS2 protein and the VP protein. Phylogenetic analyses showed that HPV can be grouped into three genotypes, as previously reported, and FcDNV can be grouped as genotype I, with HPV strains isolated in Madagascar and Tanzania. The nucleotide sequences of the noncoding regions at the 5′- and 3′-ends of the plus-strand genome showed a Y-shaped hairpin structure and simple hairpin structure, respectively.