The challenge of whiteleg shrimp farming: a vibrio expert spends twenty years sharpening a single sword to conquer it
Over the past two years, white feces, red body, vibriosis, early mortality syndrome... the various stubborn and complicated diseases in shrimp farming have been a very big problem for operators in the shrimp farming industry. The outbreaks of various new and old diseases have caused the overall farming success rate to plummet, and China's annual shrimp output has fallen from a peak of 1.5 million tons to around 800,000 tons today. To solve these disease problems, operators have tried many orthodox and folk remedies from different angles, and all kinds of "miracle drugs" have emerged one after another, but either their effects vary, or they cannot withstand repeated verification or scrutiny.
In the past, farmers treating vibriosis in shrimp always used antibiotics. The positive role played by antibiotics is mainly reflected in preventing and treating aquatic animal diseases, promoting growth, and saving nutrients. Although antibiotics have relatively good application results in the prevention and treatment of aquaculture diseases and have also promoted the development of the aquaculture industry, the continuous use of antibiotics easily produces drug-resistant strains, leaves drug residues, and easily disrupts the microecological balance of aquatic animals. On the one hand, this makes aquaculture diseases increasingly difficult to treat; on the other hand, the quality and safety of aquatic products cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, as people's living standards improve, awareness of the quality and safety of aquatic products continues to increase, and the contradiction between the pros and cons of antibiotics is becoming increasingly intense, which has already attracted widespread attention.
In order to produce pollution-free aquatic products, improve the quality of aquatic products, and also for human health and the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry, the advantages and disadvantages of antibiotic use should be understood scientifically and reasonably, and antibiotics should be used cautiously to ensure the safety and hygiene of farmed aquatic products.
So, is there after all a method that can widely and effectively prevent and treat these shrimp diseases while also avoiding the side effects of antibiotics on the safety of aquatic products?
Zhu Shengshan, a national second-level professor, an expert enjoying special allowances from the State Council, and former director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Development Research Institute of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, led his team through nearly 20 years of research and repeated experiments to bring a solution to the difficult problem of shrimp farming. Recently, Professor Zhu brought his research results to Nanfang Media Group and accepted an interview with a reporter from Southcn.com.
Twenty years to sharpen one sword; more than ten thousand formulas finally bear fruit
In 1998, Professor Zhu's good friend proposed that he would provide the funding himself and hoped Professor Zhu would lead a team to conduct some research topics on Chinese herbal medicine as a substitute for antibiotics. If results could be achieved, it would be great good news benefiting society. At first, Professor Zhu thought this was an "impossible task," because antibiotics achieve their purpose in preventing and treating infectious diseases by acting directly on bacteria and have an inhibitory or killing effect on pathogenic microorganisms. Chinese herbal medicines are mainly suitable for regulating bodily functions, while Western medicines take effect quickly, so everyone preferred to use antibiotics, and antibiotics were also convenient to use.
Carrying this confusion, Professor Zhu and his team traveled across the country, investigated medicinal material resources, went through more than ten thousand proven formulas, and studied formulas for Chinese herbal medicines to replace antibiotics. However, because the topic was so grand, for more than ten years before that, there had never been a specific direction.
It was not until 2014 that a colleague of Professor Zhu, when confiding to him about the difficulties of farming shrimp at home, mentioned that the problem of bacterial drug resistance was becoming more and more serious, that antibiotics no longer had any effect on shrimp vibriosis, and therefore Chinese herbal medicines might play an important role in replacing antibiotics in treating certain diseases. Holding the attitude of "treating a dead horse as if it were alive," the colleague wanted to ask Professor Zhu to try his formula.
When he first arrived at his colleague's home in Zhanjiang, Professor Zhu did not hold out much hope either, because in his previous research he had always focused mainly on 14 bacterial strains including Escherichia coli that act on humans. After looking at his colleague's shrimp ponds, Professor Zhu and his students selected 12 ponds, used 2 as controls, and used 5 formulas for experimental research. The results showed that one formula was especially useful for shrimp vibriosis; it could not only prevent and treat vibriosis, but could also cure it. When they saw this result, Professor Zhu and his team were all very excited. For their research, this was undoubtedly an experiment of decisive significance, and it was precisely through this opportunity that Professor Zhu truly determined his research direction.
A market opened by a "bet"
Afterward, through a series of more in-depth studies and experiments, Professor Zhu and his team developed the Chinese herbal compound KFJ "Vibrio Expert" series of products.
Everything is hard at the beginning. As a company newly entering the market, getting the first customer is the hardest part. And Professor Zhu and his team's first customer, Brother Hong, was won through a bet.
At that time, Professor Zhu and his marketing team selected Daaao in Jiangmen as the first "battlefield." On the afternoon of the second day after arriving in Daaao, the first group of colleagues arrived at Brother Hong's pond. Brother Hong's shrimp pond had shrimp of about 100 head, and for the past three days 6-7 jin of shrimp had died every day, completely uncontrollable. After looking at Brother Hong's shrimp, Xiao Zhu from the team diagnosed the typical symptoms of vibriosis and offered to treat Brother Hong's shrimp for free. After hearing this, Brother Hong led Xiao Zhu into the house and, pointing to the various Chinese medicines, chemical drugs, water conditioners, and so on piled up by the wall, said: "Look, I've tried every kind of medicine, including Chinese medicine, but it only regulates the stomach and intestines. What really treats the disease is still antibiotics, but now antibiotics are useless too..."
"Then why not try our Vibrio Expert? We guarantee a cure in two days. If you don't believe it, you can take a cup of pond water, drop in a few drops of our product, and it will kill all the vibrio immediately."
"I've seen this kind of experiment too many times. Many of those selling disinfectants say they can kill bacteria in the water. If you really can, then kill the vibrio inside the shrimp and show me."
"Brother Hong, Vibrio Expert can kill vibrio in shrimp within one hour and cure vibriosis in two days."
After hearing this, Brother Hong repeatedly said he did not believe it. At this moment, the neighbor Uncle Bing cut in: "Why don't you make a bet? If it's cured, pay; if it's not cured, don't pay. I'll be the witness."
"Fine. If you cure them, I'll pay, and I'll even buy 20 more sets. If you don't cure them, not only will I not pay, you'll also have to compensate me 2,000 yuan for my losses these past few days. How about that?" Brother Hong said somewhat provocatively.
"Good. If it's cured, you don't need to buy more. Just introduce 3 customers to us."
"No problem. The nearby villagers all learn how to use medicine from me. If it's really cured, never mind 3, even 30 is fine."
Just like that, the first customer negotiated by the marketing team became a "bet." That afternoon, Xiao Zhu mixed Vibrio Expert into the feed and fed it, and at the same time conducted a one-hour experiment on killing vibrio in shrimp. Early the next morning, Brother Hong happily told Xiao Zhu that the shrimp bodies had become translucent and the fed shrimp were much more energetic. The results of the shrimp-body vibrio killing experiment also showed that the TCBS plate (a culture medium for testing vibrio) in the group not given the medicine had already grown quite a lot of vibrio, while the TCBS plate in the medicated group had no bacteria.
Two days after medication, after checking the condition of the shrimp, Brother Hong excitedly told Xiao Zhu: "It's really cured!" As he spoke, he took out his wallet to pay for the medicine and at the same time pulled Xiao Zhu along to go introduce Uncle Bing, Brother Liang, and other farmers... Driven by Brother Hong, Professor Zhu and his marketing team gradually opened up the market in Daaao, Jiangmen.
Chinese herbal medicine replaces antibiotics to prevent and treat infectious vibriosis
Throughout the entire research process, Professor Zhu and his team collected more than 3,000 related folk proven formulas and evaluated prescriptions, medicinal materials, processes, and dosage forms through pharmacodynamics and chemistry. They screened out 8 Chinese herbal medicines including loropetalum leaf, Lobelia chinensis, and Chinese muskwort to form the anti-vibrio compound KFJ (Vibrio Expert), examined medicinal material resources (place of origin, collection, processing), optimized the preparation process of the extract, studied and drafted the preparation dosage form, clinically evaluated and drafted usage and dosage, and carried out clinical verification and promotion.
In 2017, Professor Zhu led a student team in treating more than 300 ponds in areas of Guangdong with intensive shrimp farming, with a 100% cure rate for vibriosis. After verification, "Vibrio Expert" can achieve the following: instantly kill vibrio outside the body; kill vibrio inside shrimp within one hour, with effect visible after a single use; and cure vibriosis in two days. In addition, it can also improve liver enzyme activity to protect the liver, improve immunity, improve stress resistance, attract feeding, and promote growth.
That year, Professor Zhu and his team, in Jiangmen, Zhanjiang, Shanwei, and other places in Guangdong, treated red body, white feces, fluorescence, empty intestine and empty stomach, and sneaky death symptoms caused by vibrio, and increased feed intake for more than 200 households and nearly 300 ponds. There were already 110 households using KFJ formula extract for prevention, and the number is still increasing. Xiao Zhu from the team told the reporter that after repeated experiments, "Vibrio Expert" is now a fifth-generation product and also the generation with the best effect and the most stable quality.
Striving for authoritative certification and building a professional platform
During the interview, Professor Zhu told the reporter that the first thing they needed to do next was obtain product certification. They want authoritative institutions such as the provincial ocean and fishery department, the Ministry of Agriculture, or the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to verify their products, so that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recognizes that China has already used Chinese herbal medicines to solve the world's hard-to-control vibriosis; so that people and institutions farming aquatic animals all over the world no longer fear vibriosis and regain confidence in farming shrimp. In this way, shrimp farmers can use the Chinese herbal medicine products developed by the team to prevent and treat vibriosis with greater peace of mind, avoiding a series of environmental and food problems caused by the abuse of antibiotics.
The second thing is to expand the scope of services. At present, Professor Zhu and his team have carried out market promotion in two pilot sites in Guangdong Province. Next, they need to expand and build service teams, ally with high-quality partners, and carry out nationwide service point deployment and online consulting services, so that shrimp farming friends across the country and even the world can enjoy the services of Vibrio Expert and escape the threat of vibriosis.
The third thing is to establish market channels. While expanding and building service teams, allying with high-quality partners, and expanding the scope of services, they should establish logistics, personnel, and information flow channels jointly owned by the company and its partners, so that good products such as Streptococcus Expert, Nocardia Expert, Trichodina Expert, and Dactylogyrus Expert can smoothly pass through the channels and serve the aquatic industry.
The fourth thing is to innovate products and prepare for the future. They should build a core research and development team, carry out industry-university-research cooperation, and continue researching Chinese herbal medicines that can replace antibiotics, not only to solve the problem of infectious diseases in aquatic animals, but also to serve the livestock industry.
The fifth point is that Professor Zhu hopes to build a research and development platform for Chinese herbal medicines that replace antibiotics. Through the platform, they can organize domestic and foreign experts, enterprises, and institutions to jointly carry out research, development, and creation and form relevant research and development teams; build institutions for interconnected, complementary, and shared services for instruments and equipment; and also divide labor and cooperate according to specialties and strengths to form a platform with obvious professional advantages and strong overall innovation and service capabilities.
At the end of the interview, Professor Zhu said to the reporter full of confidence: "Our company's products escort farmers and contribute to food safety. Our team will still continue to research human medicines in the future. The experiment on our currently researched Chinese herbal compound against drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has already achieved obvious results. In the future, we will invest more energy and funds in the research of human-use Chinese herbal medicines that replace antibiotics, striving to contribute to human food safety and health as soon as possible."