Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing economic activities worldwide; shrimp production by aquaculture is around 70% or more of the total consumed. The development of this activity is inducing great benefits in the production of food and jobs; however, shrimp aquaculture is also generating; (1) ecological imbalance by pelagic species overexploitation to produce fish ingredients, (2) bays contamination by inappropriate waste management and (3) pathogens proliferation by antibiotics abuse. In this sense, a significant number of regulations and legal restrictions have been imposed; thus, aquaculture is no longer considered a profitable activity. Therefore, significant and innovative technologies need to be applied to ensure the sustainability and profitability of this activity. In this sense, probiotic bacteria are being used in aquaculture to improve feed intake, modulate gut microbiota and control pathogen proliferation. This work summarizes the results from researchers who worked extensively to show how probiotic bacteria can improve shrimp aquaculture development.
Keywords: Functional feeds; Microbiota modulation; Pathogens control; Probiotic strains.