An update on the ornamental fish industry in Malaysia: Aeromonas hydrophila-associated disease and its treatment control

Vet World Vol.14 May-2021 Article-12

Review Article

Veterinary World, 14(5): 1143-1152

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.1143-1152

Norashikin Anjur^1,2, Siti Fatimah Sabran^1,3, Hassan Mohd Daud^4,5, and Nor Zalina Othman⁶

1. Department of Technology and Natural Resources, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Pagoh, Johor, Malaysia.
2. Department of Agrotechnology and Bio-industry, Politeknik Sandakan, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia.
3. Centre of Research for Sustainable Uses of Natural Resources, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Pagoh, Johor, Malaysia.
4. Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
5. Aquatic Animal Health and Therapeutics Laboratory (AquaHealth), Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
6. Innovation Centre in Agritechnology for Advanced BioProcess, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Pagoh, Johor, Malaysia.

Background and Aim: Malaysia is the world's major producer and exporter of ornamental fish, contributing 9% to the global trade and taking the second position after Singapore. Because of their artistic appeal and tremendous commercial value for international trade, ornamental fish recently gain rapid importance for foreign exchange and as a source of employment. While ornamental fish production is growing, there is an increase in infectious diseases, resulting in high fish mortality with significant economic loss. Bacterial disease is a serious problem for ornamental fish industry. Bacterial species surveillance in diseased freshwater ornamental fish from an aquarium shop reveals that Aeromonas hydrophila is the most dominant bacteria isolated. Consequently, Malaysia is stepping up its efforts by implementing the Economic Transformation Program and other biosecurity steps to address the aquaculture issues and encourage the regrowth of the ornamental fish market. Chemotherapeutic medications, phytobiotics, probiotics, yeast extracts, vaccines, and disinfectants can be used in controlling bacteria. Further studies should be done to find new antibacterial agents from natural sources to combat bacterial fish diseases and reduce fish mortality rate in sustainable aquaculture farms. This review summarizes the literature on ornamental fish industries and aquaculture production in relation to A. hydrophila-associated diseases and ornamental fish health management in Malaysia.

Keywords: Aeromonas hydrophila, chemotherapeutic drug, Malaysia, ornamental fish, phytotherapy.

How to cite this article: Anjur N, Sabran SF, Daud HM, Othman NZ (2021) An update on the ornamental fish industry in Malaysia: Aeromonas hydrophila-associated disease and its treatment control, Veterinary World, 14(5): 1143-1152.

Received: 18-11-2020 Accepted: 22-03-2021 Published online: 11-05-2021

Corresponding author: Siti Fatimah Sabran E-mail: fatimahsb@uthm.edu.my

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.1143-1152

Copyright: Anjur, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.