Though Fisheries Microbiology related research started at the very beginning of the establishment of Department of Fisheries, but recently, with other laboratories of the department, the naming of “Fisheries Microbiology Laboratory” has done to give emphasize to work with Fish and shellfish diseases and health management. With the intensification of Aquaculture, the emergence of aquatic diseases increased and impact the welfare of aquatic life and also has economic impacts on fisheries sector. Therefore, to conduct state-of-the-art research on various aspects of disease and health management, a specialized laboratory dedicated to aquatic animal health research is very much necessary; and this laboratory will serve those purposes of disease diagnostics, prevention and control measures to boost up the aquaculture production of Bangladesh.
The microbiology laboratory is located in the ground floor of Professor Muhammed Shafi Fisheries Building and is equipped with various machineries to conduct research on classical and molecular microbiology.
Currently there are three PhD students and eight Master’s thesis students working in the Fisheries Microbiology Laboratory.
a) Activities
1) Fish and Shrimp Diseases: Diagnosis, Prevention and Control; Application of
Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics in Health Management
2) Interaction of Microbes with aquatic animals and environment; Microbial dynamics in BioFloc and RAS aquaculture systems
3) Revealing the Microbial diversity of aquatic animals through metagenomics approach, microbial community management, probiotics application
4) Whole genome microbes’ detection in aquaculture through next generation sequencing (NGS)
5) Future plan of Drug design and vaccine development against aquaculture pathogen.
b) Current projects
5. “Bacterial diversity in the gill of farmed tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) through 16S rRNA gene sequencing” funded by Centre for Advanced Studies and Research in Biological Sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh for the year 2020.
4. “Revealing the Whole Genome Sequence of AHPND positive Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain isolated from shrimp Penaeus monodon cultured in Bangladesh” funded by University of Dhaka, Bangladesh for the year 2019-2020
3. “Molecular characterization and antibiotic susceptibility of the causative agents of vibriosis diseases in cultured shrimp Penaeus monodon of Bangladesh” funded by Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Bangladesh for fiscal year 2019-2020
2. “Isolation and identification of Streptococcus agalactiae from diseased tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) cultured in Bangladesh” Funded by Biotechnology Research Centre, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh for the year 2019-2020
1. “Immediate and accurate diagnosis of emerging Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) disease in Bangladesh through molecular approach” funded by Ministry of Education, Government of Bangladesh for the year 2018-19 and 2019-20
c) Photographs
One work from Fisheries Microbiology Lab won Best Oral Presentation Award and another two works won Best Poster Presentation Award during 8th Biennial Fisheries Conference & Research Fair 2019; 30-31 March 2019
One research work from Fisheries Microbiology Lab won Best Oral Presenter Award in Fisheries Society of Bangladesh Biennial Conference FSB 2019; 27-28 December 2019