Prevention and Control of Streptococcosis in Tilapia Culture: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Tilapia culture is a very promising industry within the aquaculture sector. However, disease outbreaks have continued to threaten the industry, causing serious economic losses among the producers. Streptococcosis has become the major bacterial disease affecting tilapia production in most regions of the world. To combat the disease and minimize its economic impact on fish producers, numerous preventive and control measures have been developed and reported over the years. This paper aims to systematically review the measures that could be used to manage the disease outbreaks and maintain fish health based on previously published scientific studies. Although numerous measures currently available have been highlighted, it is far better for the producers to maximize the preventive measures for management to be economically feasible. Among the currently available preventive measures, the use of vaccines has been shown to have the most promise, while the use of herbs has been demonstrated to be a more sustainable and economically affordable control measure. However, there are still a number of important gaps in existing literature that require further investigation. Overall, significant progress has been made in preventing and controlling streptococcosis in tilapia although, no single effective measure has been identified. Therefore, a combination of these measures may provide a more effective result.

Economic appraisal of using genetics to control Streptococcus agalactiae in Nile tilapia under cage and pond farming system in Malaysia

“…Streptococcosis has become the major bacterial disease affecting commercial tilapia farming worldwide and various prevention and control measures are being applied affecting the profitability of the farms 4 . Using genetics to control disease in aquaculture has become a common practice 14 , which is because breeders were able to reduce the incidence of a major viral disease, infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN), to near zero in salmon farming via selective breeding 15 .…”

“…There is a major difference between these two farming systems in the adoption of vaccine technologies. While many cage farmers in Malaysia and Latin America have adopted vaccines to control Streptococcosis, there is limited adoption of vaccination by pond farmers 4 , 12 .…”

“…Of all the mortality due to infectious diseases, one of the most important causative agents is the endemic bacterial disease Streptococcosis 3 , with losses being reported up to 70% (Trapia, personal communication). Streptococcosis become more likely when the water temperature rises above 30 °C 4 , 5 . In the current scenario of widespread global warming, the probability of heatwaves is increasing and with it the probability of Streptococossis as well.…”

“…In the current scenario of widespread global warming, the probability of heatwaves is increasing and with it the probability of Streptococossis as well. Until now the vast majority of the tilapia industry relies on the post-infection strategy of treatment with antibiotics, with few large-scale commercial farmers shifting to a pre-infection vaccination strategy to control the infection and reduce the mortality due to Streptococcosis 4 .…”

Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Regulated Expression Profiles in Oreochromis niloticus in Response to Coinfection of Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus iniae

“…As a common disease caused by pathogenic bacteria, streptococcosis has devastating effects in tilapia cultures ( Anshary et al, 2014 ). Gram-positive bacteria S. agalactiae and S. iniae are the main pathogens of streptococcosis ( Maulu et al, 2021 ). In 2019, the economic losses for the tilapia aquaculture industry caused by S. agalactiae and S. iniae have reached around 2.5 billion RMB ( Huang et al, 2014 ; Tavares et al, 2018 ; Shiry et al, 2019 ).…”