Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 12 commercial probiotic products in Thailand, used in marine shrimp cultivation, based on two criteria namely, accuracy of the information on product labels as regards the number and types of microorganisms and acceptability of the number of probiotic microorganisms at 10⁶ colony forming unit (CFU)/g in the products. Of the 12 products sampled, only two of them provided adequate information on the number and composition of microorganisms and their proper dosage. In addition, none of the probiotic products possessed the correct number and composition of microorganisms or qualitative extracellular enzymes, declared on their labels nor did they show any in vitro inhibitory activity on shrimp pathogenic Vibrio harveyi.However, a few products were capable of biosynthesis of amylase, protease and lipase with high capacities.

Key words: Commercial probiotic product, marine shrimp, Vibrio harveyi, amylase, protease, lipase.