Changes in lysosomal enzyme activity and protection against Vibrio infection in Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man) post larvae after bath immunostimulation with b-glucan

Abstract

Epidemics often strike juveniles or post larvae and this can pose serious economic problems for farmers [1]. Hence, the diseases are especially serious at post larval stages when the prawns are very active and growing fast [2]. Thus, there is a need to increase the non-specific immunity of prawns by utilising immunostimulants so as to provide them with a broad-spectrum defensive ability that includes phagocytosis, encapsulation, nodule formation and production of soluble antimicrobial peptides, which have been known for many years to occur in animals, especially invertebrates, which lack T-lymphocytes or specific immunoglobulins.