Homeopathy for shrimp aquaculture: increased survival and superoxide dismutase activity in juvenile white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei during a bacterial pathogen-challenge

Homeopathy is a discipline of medical science with successful application in humans, but its effects on growth, survival, immune response, and gene expression of species of plants and animals is still preliminary. We evaluated homeopathy in marine aquaculture of white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei looking for an increase in resistance of shrimp to the pathogenic bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which is associated with acute hepatopancreatitis and early mortality syndrome (EMS) that causes huge economic losses in commercial shrimp farms worldwide.

Juvenile shrimp (8 g mean fresh weight) were cultivated with three homeopathic treatments for a four days period (Hel-Mix; Pav-Mix; Vid-Mix; Hel-Mix/Pav-Mix) and then challenged for 120 h against a pathogenic strain of V. parahaemolyticus (CAIM 170; www.ciad.mx/caim). The experimental design included two controls (NCH-Control untreated/not challenged; CH-Control untreated/challenged). Homeopathic medicines (31CH) sprayed in commercial balanced food (PIASA™; 35% protein) were provided ad libitum during both culture and challenge periods. Control groups received balanced food without homeopathy. As no mortality occurred with a first dose of 1 × 10⁶ CFU/ml (=LD₅₀) of pathogen strain at the beginning of the challenge, a second dose was added 24 hours later.

96 hours after challenge, superoxide dismutase (SOD, percentage of inhibition) was 44.49% (Hel-Mix), 26.53% (Pav-Mix), 94.30% (Vid-Mix), 91.59 % (Hel-Mix/Pav-Mix ) and 41.63% (CH-Control) (p < 0.05). 120 hour after challenge, cumulative survival was 0% (Hel-Mix), 33.3% (Pav-Mix), 58.3% (Vid-Mix ), 50% (Hel-Mix/Pav-Mix), 100% (NCH-Control) and 0% (CH-Control). Hel-Mix/Pav-Mix and Vid-Mix increased survival and immune response in shrimp subjected to stressful conditions associated with V. parahaemolyticus, similarly to what happens in infected farms. It suggests that homeopathy has a great potential for application in shrimp aquaculture. Nevertheless, more studies are required to demonstrate that homeopathy can improve the eco-sustainability of aquaculture industry, by increasing health of cultured shrimp and the safety/inocuity of harvested shrimp for human consumption.

Keywords

Aquaculture and homeopathy - Shrimp disease and immunity