Probiotics in aquaculture of China - Current state, problems and prospect

The development of non-antibiotic and environmental friendly agents is one of the key factors for health management in aquaculture. The application of probiotics in aquaculture of China emerged in 1980s; subsequently, commercial probiotic products from USA, Japan and United Kingdom were introduced into China in the middle of 1990s and evaluation experiments were conducted in vivo. In the mean time, scientists in China started to screen for new probiotic strains from local aquaculture rearing unit in an attempt to suit the specific requirements in China. Also, different modes of action of probiotics were studied. As products containing probiotic bacteria are gaining popularity in aquaculture of China, the quality control of probiotics in aquaculture has become an important issue in China. At present, data about the efficacy of probiotics in commercial aquaculture of China are still lacking. This review discusses mainly the studies and applications about species, effects, mechanisms, problems and prospect of probiotics used in aquaculture of China, and highlighted several effective evaluation methods to control the quality of commercial probiotic products. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.