Bioencapsulation of chemotherapeutics in Artemia as a means of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases of marine fish fry

• Published in: Aquacultural engineering 1996, Vol.15 (2), p.133-147
• Main Authors: Touraki, Maria, Mourelatos, Spiros, Karamanlidou, Gherda, Kalaitzopoulou, Stella, Kastritsis, Costas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal aquaculture; Animal productions; Biological and medical sciences; Brackish; Dicentrarchus labrax; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Pisciculture; Vertebrate aquaculture
• ISSN: 0144-8609; 1873-5614
• DOI: 10.1016/0144-8609(95)00007-0

The ability of Artemia nauplii to act as carriers of the chemotherapeutics trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole for the treatment of infectious diseases of fish fry was studied. Both drugs accumulate in the nauplii as a function of time and their doses in the enrichment medium, but in different ratios, indicating different accumulation kinetics of the two drugs. The levels of the therapeutics in the nauplii remain fairly high even 8 hr post enrichment, decreasing thereafter mostly due to their discharge into their surrounding medium. However, the amounts of the discharged therapeutics do not account for their decrease in the nauplii. This, along with the appearance of certain minor peaks observed in HPLC, may well indicate that a metabolic alteration of the therapeutics occurs in the nauplii. A time-course quantification of the two drugs in the gut and the body of the fish larvae showed that they follow different kinetic patterns during their transfer from the digestive tract to the rest of the body. The use of the bioencapsulation technique as means of prevention or therapy was tested on Vibrio anguillarum-challenged sea bass larvae ( Dicentrarchus labrax). Highly significant improvement ( p < 0·002) in survival was observed when administration of medicated Artemia to fish larvae preceded ( S = 81·4% ± 6·2%) or followed ( S = 81·2% ± 4·4%) the bacterial challenge, as compared to the challenged-non-treated fish larvae ( S = 65·0 ± 7·0%).