Effects of long-term exposure to amoxicillin residues on stress resistance and body compositions of Penaeus vannamei

Occurrence of the pharmaceutical active residues (particularly antibiotics) threatens the health of the environment and human society. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the impacts of the Amoxicillin (AMX) residues on resistance to environmental stress and biochemical compositions of the body in Penaeus vannamei.

Six-hundred specimens with a mean (±SD) weight and total length of 9.23±1.77 g and 9.28±0.73 cm were randomly experimented in four triplicate treatments, namely T1(control): without AMX residues in a rearing environment, T2: 100 μg/L AMX residues concentration in water, T3: 300 μg/L and T4: 500 μg/L for 60 days. At the end of the experimental trial, five specimens for biochemical body composition analyses were separately sampled. Ten shrimps from each treatment were also randomly selected and exposed to 50 ppt salinity stress for 48 hours, and then survival rates were computed.

Body composition analyses showed that moisture and protein not differed among the treatments (p>0.05), while fat in T2 (28.29±5.50) was significantly more than in others (p<0.05). The lowest values of ash were obtained in T1 and T4, and they differed with T2 and T3 (p<0.05). The highest survival rate of shrimps exposed to salinity stress (50 ppt in 48 h) was observed in T2 and T3, in contrast, the lowest value was recorded for T4 (p<0.01).

Findings of the present research indicate that the occurrence of high doses of AMX residues pollution in the rearing water affects the stress resistance of P. vannamei which can be due to disruption of protein and fat metabolisms in the shrimp body.