Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit
Project Number: 6066-10600-001-011-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 20, 2025
End Date: Sep 19, 2027
Objective:
Parasitic infections can cause catfish morbidity and death in commercial ponds. Snails are notorious vectors of parasitic worms that infect catfish, so the industry needs efficient methods to disrupt snail populations to break the life cycle of parasites in commercial ponds. This project is focused on the identification of natural compounds, generally recognized as safe and generally inexpensive, that reduce or eradicate parasitic invertebrates that also have limited toxicity to fish and phytoplankton. The overall objective is to limit parasite infections in commercial ponds to improve catfish health and producer profitability.
Approach:
ARS will provide organisms such as specific species of snails known to harbor trematode worms for the Cooperators to perform small-scale initial screening of compounds. The Cooperators will utilize their existing collection of natural compounds and knowledge of pharmaceutical activity to initially screen compounds in small-scale aquaria. Promising candidates will then be provided to ARS for experiments in larger tanks and ponds to determine potential levels of toxicity to catfish and algae responsible for oxygen production in ponds. Information on successful compounds will be made available to US catfish producers.