Recent studies have shown that feeding diets supplemented with fish meal containing high levels of biogenic amines to shrimp reduced growth and feed consumption. An improvement in growth, however, has been found in shrimp fed a diet supplemented with histamine and cadaverine. The objective of the current experiment was to provide more information about the effect of dietary histamine on the gro...

Infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) is a widely distributed single-stranded DNA parvovirus that has been responsible for major losses in wild and farmed penaeid shrimp populations on the northwestern Pacific coast of Mexico since the early 1990's. IHHNV has been considered a slow-evolving, stable virus because shrimp populations in this region have recovered to pre-ep...

Infectious disease constitutes a major obstacle to the sustainability of shrimp aquaculture worldwide and a significant threat to natural populations of shrimp and other crustacea. The study of the shrimp immune system, including the response to viral infection, has been hampered by a relative lack of molecular genetic information and of tools suitable for high-throughput assessment of gene exp...

Signals transmit information to receivers about sender attributes, increase the fitness of both parties, and are selected for in cooperative interactions between species to reduce conflict [1, 2]. Marine cleaning interactions are known for stereotyped behaviors [3-6] that likely serve as signals. For example, "dancing" and "tactile dancing" in cleaner fish may serve to advertise cleaning servic...

Coupled trophic-engineer interactions are potentially important for maintaining habitat function and ecosystem services. As ephemeral submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), Ruppia maritima has a short well-defined growth-senescence cycle and should benefit from any ecological interaction that enhances its physical condition and longevity. Grass shrimp (Palaemonetes spp.) are abundant facultative g...

Sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC) is a proxy for organic matter processing and thus provides a useful proxy of benthic ecosystem function. Oxygen uptake in deep-sea sediments is mainly driven by bacteria, and the direct contribution of benthic macro- and mega-infauna respiration is thought to be relatively modest. However, the main contribution of infaunal organisms to benthic respir...

In recent times, attention has focused on immunostimulants and plant products which could have beneficial effects in disease control. At present, the application of immunostimulants has been considered a more effective approach to health management in aquaculture through the enhancement of immune capability and disease resistance in shrimp. Garlic possesses bactericidal property against bacteri...

Haemocyte count, phenoloxidase activity, respiratory burst (release of superoxide anion), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity, phagocytic activity and clearance efficiency to the pathogen Vibrio alginolyticus were measured in white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles (12.3 +/- 1.2 g) which had been fed diets containing sodium alginate at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 g ...

The total haemocyte count (THC), phenoloxidase (PO) activity, respiratory bursts (release of superoxide anions), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, as well as expressions of beta-1,3-glucan-binding protein (betaGBP), prophenoloxidase (proPO), peroxinectin (PE), cytosolic SOD (cyt-SOD), penaeidin-5 (PA-5), and a single whey acidic protein (WAP) domain protein (SWDP) gene were determined in...

White spot disease (WSD) which is caused by white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) creates severe epizootics in captured and cultured black tiger shrimp, resulting a huge loss in the economic output of the aquaculture industry worldwide. Performing selective breeding using DNA markers would prove to be a potential cost effective strategy for long term disease control in shrimps. In the present invest...