Oral challenge of postlarvae of Litopenaeus vannamei through bioencapsulation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Artemia franciscana

Although vibriosis has caused major financial losses in shrimp farming we s till lack a model for studying this disease; therefore, the objective of th is study was to develop such a model. Two treatments were applied to the ma rine shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei; they were fed Vibrio parahaemolyticus bio encapsulated in nauplii of Artemia franciscana and control shrimp were fed sterile nauplii. After seven days, the mortality levels were significantly different between the two treatments, averaging 9.4% and 15.3% for the expe rimental treatment and 1.6% and 0% for the control treatment, for trials 1 and 2, respectively.