Webinar on Peptobiotics: A Novel Solution For Vibriosis & Vibrio-Associated Diseases

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:04]So, our technology and our company is called Pepto Biotics.

[00:00:10]Pepto means protein and Biotics means something with a biological function.

[00:00:16]And we focus on uh recombinant, that means made with biotechnology, antimicrobial, it kills bacteria, host defense peptides.

[00:00:27]And for shrimp farming, we focus on preventing vibrio infections.

[00:00:33]So, like Dr. Ravi was saying, there are many different infections in shrimp caused by vibrio.

[00:00:40]And in different countries, we see different kinds of pathologies. So, the TPD disease in Vietnam and China, and AHPND in many different countries.

[00:00:52]And in India, we see white feces, which can have many causes, but vibrio is one of the biggest causes.

[00:00:58]And also sometimes EMS can be caused by vibrio.

[00:01:01]Uh many many different problems from the [clears throat] vibrio.

[00:01:04]Sometimes the vibrio does not kill the shrimp. Sometimes it just negatively impacts the gut and makes the FCR less efficient or the mortality rate slightly higher without manifesting as a chronic disease.

[00:01:18]So, controlling vibrio in aquaculture is a problem which is as old as the industry.

[00:01:25]And uh in our company, we were interested in finding an old solution to deal with this problem.

[00:01:33]So, what what we work with is antimicrobial peptides, which actually evolved 3.5 billion years ago uh in the evolution of the immune system. So, they are the most ancient part of the immune system.

[00:01:49]Before there was ROS space killing or toll-like receptors, we've had antimicrobial peptides.

[00:01:55]Um and we think these can be a really old but new solution to fighting disease in shrimp.

[00:02:03]And our company is the first to bring this technology to shrimp aquaculture.

[00:02:10]So, peptide just means protein or means small protein.

[00:02:17]And the antimicrobial peptides are proteins which are designed to kill bacteria.

[00:02:24]And they can do this in two different ways.

[00:02:27]The first way the peptide kills the bacteria is by breaking the membrane of the bacteria. So, every bacteria is surrounded by a cell membrane.

[00:02:37]And the peptides can make holes in the membrane and cause the bacteria to disintegrate and die.

[00:02:45]And the peptide can also help enhance the immune system. They can cover the surface of the bacteria and attract the immune cells to destroy the bacteria.

[00:02:55]And they can also change the expression levels, the regulation of different immunity genes in the shrimp.

[00:03:05]Because the shrimp do not have antibodies, this immunity-enhancing function, where they cover the surface of the bacteria and recruit the immune cells, is very important for helping the shrimp's natural immune system fight infection.

[00:03:26]So, why why do we think this is a good way to deal with shrimp disease? And uh, let me tell you a little bit about our company.

[00:03:35]So, me and my business partner, we both studied in different universities and worked as researchers.

[00:03:43]And we thought that it was important >> [clears throat] >> to be close close to where shrimp are grown.

[00:03:53]So, we decided to start our company in Singapore.

[00:03:57]And Singapore, there are only two shrimp farms, but there is a lot of biotechnology research.

[00:04:03]And for the first two or three years of our company, all we did was research. We did not sell any products. We just tried to make the antimicrobial peptide in the lab using biotechnology with mass production.

[00:04:18]And then, in 2024, we were the first to get the regulatory approval in Vietnam.

[00:04:24]In 2025, we began the sales.

[00:04:27]Uh now, our business in Vietnam is quite successful. So, you can see us here with one of our customers. This is Que Lam.

[00:04:35]They're a distributor for CP and a very famous shrimp farming family in Vietnam.

[00:04:41]They actually have the record for the largest shrimp ever grown in Vietnam.

[00:04:46]The shrimp is like the size of a lobster.

[00:04:49]Uh and so, yeah, we were able to learn a lot from these customers and really scale up our sales.

[00:04:55]And of course, we're very excited to come to India because India is such a large market.

[00:05:01]And through uh a mutual friend, uh Dr. Santhana, I was able to get introduced to the Novacamp team.

[00:05:08]Visited them in India, saw how they have a strong passion for shrimp farming.

[00:05:13]Not just trying to sell products, but also helping the farmer manage the farm better.

[00:05:19]Which is of course very important for an integrated approach to disease management.

[00:05:24]Uh and so, yeah, we're very happy to have gotten touch with Novacamp and are looking forward to launching our product in India very soon.

[00:05:42]So, how did we find the antimicrobial peptides? I just want to pause for a second.

[00:05:48]Uh you know, we got our antimicrobial peptides from the DNA of an animal that lives in the ocean.

[00:05:55]And if anybody can guess what animal our peptide comes from, we will give them 5 kg of free product sample.

[00:06:04]Does anyone in the call want to try and guess what animal our peptide come from?

[00:06:08]You can post in the chat uh different name, maybe shark, maybe jellyfish.

[00:06:14]If you guess correct, they will will give you some free product.

[00:06:20]Okay, we'll check those at the end of the seminar.

[00:06:22]So, yeah, our technology, we scanned the DNA, the genome of many different animal that live in the ocean because every animal in the ocean has to fight the Vibrio bacteria.

[00:06:36]And when we were doing this, we found some really strong antimicrobial gene, and we tested them using the agar.

[00:06:45]So, you can see here we tested many different peptide, and some peptide does not kill the Vibrio, some have strong activity, some have weaker activity, and we tested them against many different Vibrio species because Vibrio is very diverse.

[00:07:03]Finally, we were able to find a strong peptide that can really kill the bacteria.

[00:07:08]And we scaled up the production using [clears throat] bioreactors and biotechnology.

[00:07:18]So, now I want to present some data about our product and the effect it has.

[00:07:25]So, Vibrio, even though you can have two Vibrio that are both called Vibrio parahaemolyticus, their genome can be very different.

[00:07:35]Uh and they can have different toxin gene to cause disease and different resistance gene to different antibiotics or products environmental factors.

[00:07:46]So, for our company, we've actually tested our product against 32 different species of Vibrio now and seen consistent activity.

[00:07:56]And you can see here for some other products like this antibiotic, the antibiotic is very effective against one species of the bacteria, where this is dead bacteria here.

[00:08:09]But against the other bacteria species, there's no benefit.

[00:08:14]Whereas the peptide can reliably inhibit the bacteria and kill the bacteria in an effective way.

[00:08:23]And now we have many products in China claim they have the antimicrobial peptide and try to compete with us.

[00:08:32]And in this test, we show that our product is stronger than all of the other products on the market that are claiming to replace uh antibiotics using peptide.

[00:08:46]So, with our product at just 1 g per kg, we saw no bacteria.

[00:08:53]Um whereas these other products have many bacteria growing at this dosage in the feed.

[00:09:01]This one here a little bit stronger, but you can see small bacteria colonies growing.

[00:09:08]And if you leave it for more hours, these colonies will grow bigger.

[00:09:16]Of course, many products have good result in the lab, but can they actually save the shrimp from the disease? Because in the shrimp's body, it's very different to a laboratory or a test tube.

[00:09:31]So, now we've done many different studies with different researchers.

[00:09:35]And today I want to present just a few of them to you.

[00:09:39]On this study, we compared a very expensive probiotic from Europe with our antimicrobial peptide and normal shrimp feed.

[00:09:53]And in this challenge, which we conducted at the shrimp farm laboratory, they challenged the shrimp with vibrio bacteria, the EMS AHPND vibrio bacteria, into the water.

[00:10:07]And you can see that after just 5 11 hours, many of the shrimp started to die.

[00:10:15]And by 48 59 hours, almost all of the shrimp were dead. Just 2% were left alive.

[00:10:22]When they were fed to normal feed, or when they were fed normal feed with a probiotic, of course, on some other trials, probiotics can be quite successful, but on this trial, we did not see good benefit from that.

[00:10:37]But the shrimp that were fed with our peptide biotics product, we were able to achieve 73% survival rate, even though they were challenged.

[00:10:51]We also conducted similar research at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

[00:10:58]And you can see that the uh normal feed without any treatment, the survival rate goes to less than 20%.

[00:11:07]But with our product, we were able to achieve above 80% survival with good statistical significance.

[00:11:21]So, I'm not sure how well people on the call are familiar with TPD, but in India, you're very lucky because the government Perhaps she is familiar with EHP.

[00:11:39]So, yeah, I know that in India you do not have the EHP disease yet, but in Vietnam and China this is a huge problem.

[00:11:49]The bacteria infects the young shrimp.

[00:11:52]And when it infects them, it changes the gut.

[00:11:57]And it causes so much uh like uh death of the gut cells that the shrimp becomes completely transparent.

[00:12:06]And so in China they actually call this glass shrimp disease cuz the shrimp looks clear like a glass.

[00:12:15]You can see here.

[00:12:17]In this trial we wanted to compare an antibiotic, oxytetracycline, to a peptide, a low dosage, and a high dosage, and to no treatment and then no challenge.

[00:12:32]And you can see that when the shrimp were challenged but not treated, 88% of the shrimp died in 12 days after the challenge.

[00:12:43]But when the antibiotic was used, we had almost 50% survival.

[00:12:49]And then the survival was even higher using the peptide and highest at the high peptide concentration.

[00:12:59]So, yeah, we're quite excited about this potential solution that can prevent this new disease.

[00:13:07]And then finally, this is a really recent trial we did with a large European feed mill in Vietnam where they added our product into the feed formulation itself.

[00:13:18]And these are shrimp that were challenged with Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

[00:13:22]And compared to the normal feed, the feed with the peptide had almost no mortality, very similar to the unchallenged control shrimp.

[00:13:35]Uh so there's a large increase in survival.

[00:13:38]And yeah, we are hopeful that if used correctly on the farm, farmers can also achieve good results uh under vibrio challenge when they use our product.

[00:13:49]Which brings me to my next uh next slide. This is a field trial. So we were doing a case study here.

[00:13:57]And this is in CaMau, which is uh very south of Vietnam in the Mekong Delta, where there is a lot of shrimp farming.

[00:14:07]And the farm had white feces.

[00:14:10]And so very quickly we sent them our product cuz we wanted to see the effect on white feces.

[00:14:16]And in this trial they used what we call a curative dosage. So I think Dr. Ravi might might have told me this and I certainly agree with her, prevention is better than a cure. So we always try to encourage people to use our product as a defense system and apply it at 5 g per kg of feed.

[00:14:39]Because if the peptide is already present in the gut of the shrimp, it can act as a shield and prevent the bacteria from infecting the shrimp.

[00:14:49]If the shrimp are already sick, then what happens when shrimp are sick?

[00:14:54]When shrimp are sick, they stop feeding.

[00:14:57]And if the shrimp is not feeding, it is very difficult to get the product to the gut to fight the bacteria.

[00:15:05]So we we always recommend farmers use our product as a prevention rather than a cure.

[00:15:12]But if you have an emergency and the disease is really bad, in this case, we were able to cure the shrimp of the white feces. So on two ponds they dosed with the peptide.

[00:15:25]And on three ponds they did not use the peptide.

[00:15:28]These three ponds, the mortality rate was so high that they had to harvest early.

[00:15:33]I think DOC 45 or 50, I'm not sure.

[00:15:37]Uh whereas on the other ponds they were able to extend the period of culture.

[00:15:42]Um and so, of course, the feed cost was higher, but they were able to harvest at a much larger size and a much larger biomass, and they achieved almost triple the profit by intervening with these medicines, uh including our antimicrobial peptide.

[00:15:58]So, yeah, we were really pleased to see this result from the customer. Uh now, many other customers in Vietnam are also happy with our product using it for similar effects.

[00:16:09]In India, you know, the stocking density is much lower and the disease challenges are different. So, I'm looking forward to working with you, Mr. Puniavanam, Dr. Ravi, uh SRM, and yeah, hopefully we can collect more data in India and support a good application protocol for your customers.

[00:16:32]So, I think we're running slightly ahead of time, but I hope you have many questions.

[00:16:36]Thanks everyone for listening. I think uh message here is we would love you to use our product to protect your shrimp from vibrio and grow more effectively.

[00:16:46]Of course, using probiotics, other products, and correct farm management is also very important.

[00:16:52]And by combining these things, I hope that you can have many successful crops.

[00:16:57]Thank you for listening.

[00:16:59]So, thank you very much, Jonathan. Uh So, if you have any questions, you can either type in the chat box or you can unmute and straight away can ask the question.

[00:17:23]>> So, I have a question. Can we use it in the water?

[00:17:26]Especially in the hatcheries.

[00:17:29]Right. Um, you know, when we first designed this product, we never intended it to be used in the water.

[00:17:35]Because the peptide and the antibiotic uh, are different in the way they kill the bacteria.

[00:17:42]For an antibiotic, it can kill the bacteria at high concentration, and at low concentration, it will slow down the bacteria's growth.

[00:17:51]Which is why when you look at the agar diffusion zone for the antibiotic, there is no sharp perimeter. There is like a soft or a fuzzy perimeter.

[00:18:02]But with the peptide, the killing is very binary. So, when the concentration is above the MIC, 100% of the bacteria will die.

[00:18:11]And when the concentration is below the MIC, the peptide will have no effect on the bacteria. And so, that's why you can see a very sharp perimeter here on the kill zone.

[00:18:22]Uh, the peptide is unfortunately too expensive to be used in the water at effective dosage.

[00:18:29]And so, we do not encourage farmers to do that.

[00:18:33]In Vietnam, uh, some some customers and some farmers started using it in the hatchery, in the bags for the hatchery, for the PLs.

[00:18:43]Uh, and then also in the artemia, uh, and things like this to control the vibrio level, especially to control the vibrio during transit from the hatchery to the farm while the PL is in the bag.

[00:18:55]And so, now for those customers in Vietnam, we've introduced a new product, which is a higher concentration of peptide, and it has less carrier uh, mixed in with the peptide because we don't want there to be too much carrier in the hatchery water, make the water cloudy.

[00:19:13]Um So, yeah, some some customers report good results with that. Today, I just had an order from Minh Phu, which is a really large farm, uh vertically integrated farm in in uh Vietnam, and they will use the peptide for their hatchery bags.

[00:19:29]So, yeah, some customers are happy with this. Um it needs to be used as an effective dosage.

[00:19:36]Uh so, I guess my answer to your question is I don't think it can be used in the pond.

[00:19:40]It can maybe be used for specific situations in the hatchery when the correct formulation of product is used.

[00:19:48]So, there is one question from Navneet.

[00:19:50]What is the What is the impact of peptobiotics on beneficial bacteria?

[00:19:56]That's a great question. I should have uh included some data for this in my slides, but I often say that the antibiotic is like a bomb. It kills all of the bacteria in the gut.

[00:20:08]Whereas, the peptide is more like a a sniper or a very precise way of killing bacteria.

[00:20:15]So, when we were selecting this peptide, we deliberately found one which is effective against all of the vibrio, but does not harm any of the beneficial bacteria. So, this peptide does not harm bacillus or lactobacillus, and we have proven that with many tests with our customers.

[00:20:34]Uh Dr. Ravi, if you'd like to undertake the test yourself in your lab, you can get the peptide in solution and mix it with both bacillus and the vibrio, and you'll see that the bacillus still grows very happily, whereas the vibrio does not.

[00:20:49]So, what we hope, and we don't we haven't researched this yet, but it's something we're interested in, we think that the peptide can perhaps help the probiotics be more effective in the gut if it's able to suppress the vibrio and the probiotic can grow and uh be more successful.

[00:21:07]Of course, the question of whether uh probiotics actively colonize the gut >> Mhm.

[00:26:54]>> Mhm.

[00:28:49]>> Mhm.

[00:30:44]>> Mhm.

[00:30:59]>> Mhm.