Abstract

The increasing incidence of infectious diseases is a significant threat to productive sustainability in the global aquaculture industry. Consequently, there is an urgent need to investigate environmentally sustainable alternatives, including the positive therapeutic and preventative potential of a number of aquatic plants and their constituents, to explore their natural biocontrol mechanisms against aquaculture pathogens. This paper examines the natural biocontrol mechanisms of aquatic plants to purify water and enhance host immunity, in addition to the natural antimicrobial action of their bioactive compounds, which may include alkaloids, phenols, tannins, etc. This paper presents a rational and systematic comparative analysis framework to investigate, validate, and rank the varying levels of pathogen inhibition shown by the different extracts of the selected aquatic plants against specific fish and shrimp pathogens. It aims to provide relevant empirical information on the use of plant-based alternatives in aquaculture systems, replacing the customary use of chemicals to mitigate disease. Therefore, the paper stitches together a technically coherent rationale to substantiate the efficacy of an aquatic plant-based approach within the biocontrol model as a tradition to modernize aquaculture into more sustainable and reliable systems.

Keywords: Aquatic plants, Biocontrol, Aquaculture, Pathogens, Vibriosis, Sustainability, Phytochemicals