SAU teacher develops fish vaccine, first of its kind in Bangladesh

An assistant professor of Sylhet Agriculture University (SAU) has developed an oral vaccine for fish, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, which can protect different species of fish from bacterial diseases and boost their production.

The vaccine will help boost fish production as it will reduce their mortality rate, assistant professor of Department of Marine Fisheries Science Faculty Dr Abdullah Al Mamun told UNB.

Dr Abdullah started his research work on developing fish vaccine in 2016.

A huge number of fish die every year being infected by a bacteria named Aeromonas hydrophila that causes sores in fish, he said.

The vaccine developed by Dr Abdullah has been named as 'Biofilm'. The vaccine will be applied to the fish after mixing it with their feed.

"During the research, a number of Pangas fish were given the vaccine at SAU research centre and we achieved 84 per cent success and now we are thinking of applying the vaccine at the field level," he added.

The vaccine will be applied in different ponds in Sylhet from March and some ponds have been selected for this purpose, he said. "If we see success at  the field level initiative will be taken for its commercial production."

"We don't have the capacity of producing huge vaccine but we can produce 100 milliliters of vaccine every month," he added.

A proposal has been sent to the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences for assisting the research work, he said.

District fisheries official Abul Kalam Azad, said "Fish usually get infected with bacterial diseases and many fish die every year. In many countries fish vaccine is used for protecting fish from diseases. In Bangladesh, we usually use lime and salt."

According to Fisheries Faculty of SAU, 28 types of vaccine are used for fish in different countries including Japan, US, Canada, Norway, Finland, Chili and it is the first time in Bangladesh that an initiative has been taken to invent vaccine for fish. 

Vice Chancellor of the university Matier Rahman Hawladar, said around  40 lakh tonnes of fish are produced in Bangladesh and it holds the 5th position in fish production in the world.

"The university authorities have also allocated Tk 25 lakh for the research purpose and some modern equipment related to the research have been procured with the money," he said.

The vaccine will help boost fish production and meet the growing demand for protein, he hoped.