A severe outbreak of White Spot Disease in shrimp during the 1990s was the deciding factor behind Dr. Charavarthi Rangamani Subhashini’s decision to tackle one of the most significant threats to successful shrimp farming: viral and bacterial diseases. And now, Subhashini's ground-breaking work deploying bacteriophages to fight Vibriosis could have enormous benefit for the aquaculture industry.
A veterinarian specializing in biotechnology, Subhashini worked with a biotechnology firm for 10 years before establishing Aristogene Biosciences, a research and manufacturing organization, in 2006. After winning a BIRAC Innovator Award from the Indian government for her improved version of molecular diagnostics, she put her knowledge and experience of bacteriophages to use in aquaculture, where bacterial diseases were becoming an increasing concern.
"We learned from shrimp farmers just how big an issue they were, and how antibiotics were being used to tackle them,” Subhashini told the Advocate. "We were already specializing in bacteriophage therapy for diseases in other species such as cattle and poultry, and decided to work with aquaculture, where efforts were needed to find alternatives to antibiotics."
Now, Subhashini has pioneered such an alternative – two formulations called Elixir and Vibrioshield. These products have been selected as one of three finalists for the Global Seafood Alliance’s annual Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, which will be determined at the organization’s GOAL conference next month. Made from bacteriophages that hunt and kill bacteria by multiplying inside the host organism, their target is Vibriosis, a disease caused by pathogens known as vibrios. These are a component of most aquatic ecosystems, with the majority found in seawater and brackish water.