Bindu R. Pillai

• PhD
• Principal Scientist at ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture

Macrobrachium rosenbergii is a commercially important freshwater prawn cultured on a large scale mostly in south and south east Asian countries. Diseases are one of the bottlenecks for the successful culture and production of this important species. Lactococcus garvieae is a Gram-positive coccus commonly found in aquatic environments causing fish a...

This study investigated the effects of varying dietary protein and lipid levels on the growth performance and whole-body composition of climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) fry. Fish (initial weight: 0.34 ± 0.01 g) were fed nine semi-purified diets with three protein (35%, 40%, and 45%) and three lipids (6%, 8%, and 10%) levels for 60 days. While su...

Aim: The present study evaluates the immunomodulatory potentials of β-glucan and chitosan administered orally for 15 days to the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii juveniles. Methodology: Two diets were formulated supplementing 1.5 g kg-1 and 20 g kg-1 of β-glucan (diet G) and chitosan (diet C), respectively, with a control diet (diet B)....

An innovative method of seed production of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879) in brackishwater ponds, in place of sophisticated indoor hatcheries is in practice in the Balasore District of Odisha, India. A survey was conducted inthe Balasore District to collect data on various aspects of pond-based seed production of M....

Macrobrachium rosenbergii widely known as Giant Prawn (GP) is one of the most important freshwater prawn species widely cultured in several tropical and sub-tropical countries around the world. The global production of GP in 2021 was 3,13,756 t with a value of over $ 2.45 billion. China is the top producer with a production of 1,71,263 t accounting...

The growth performance of striped murrel, Channa striata larvae which were produced in the pre-monsoon season (April- May) and another in monsoon season (June-August) under controlled conditions has been evaluated with a 30-day experiment. The experiment was conducted for pre-monsoon and monsoon season separately. Two quadruplicate was assigned as...

Highlights Inclusion of the designed radial flow settler to the aquaponic system helps to remove more than 80% TSS, which is on par with or better in comparison to the TSS removal efficiency of the existing models. Removing excess suspended solids in traditional aquaponic setups could help prevent biofilter choking and hence, water contamination fu...

GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF GIANT PRAWN Macrobrachium rosenbergii THROUGH SELECTIVE BREEDING IN INDIA- STATUS AND SCOPE Bindu R. Pillai*, D. Panda, K. D. Mahapatra, P.K. Sahoo, R. Ponzoni, R. Rathod, F. Hoque, S. Sahu, B. Mishra, N. Naik, Jyoti, R. Kannauj, A. Champati, Pravin, P., A. Das and A. Miriyala ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquacultur...

Background: With remarkable growth in aquaculture, the need for system diversification and species diversification has been demanded by the producers to gain fruitful output in terms of profit. Striped murrel, Channa striata has been identified as a suitable species for modern aquaculture systems in terms of species diversification due to their fas...

Macrobrachium dayanum is a small freshwater prawn species that completes its lifecycle in freshwater. It shows abbreviated larval development. The egg bearing females were reared individually till egg hatching in 10 l glass jars. The hatchlings were collected and reared in freshwater for 190 days under laboratory conditions. Hatchlings were fed ini...

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of dietary levamisole in the modulation of innate immunity and reducing the percent mortality against nitrite stress or Aeromonas hydrophila infection in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Haemolymph agglutinin and total protein levels, lysozyme activity, phenoloxidase (PO) activity, tot...

The present paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment to study the effect of different levels of dietary lipids on reproductive performance of captive broodstock of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Three formulated pellet diets were prepared containing 2% (D1), 4% (D2) and 6% (D3) lipid and fed to adult females of M. ros...

Giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii is an important freshwater crustacean widely cultured in several countries including India. Of late, its production has come down due to slow growth rate and disease occurrences. The ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar in collaboration with the WorldFish, Malays...

Aquaculture in Punjab is a fast emerging income-generating activity, providing quality and low-cost protein diets to the people. Although fish production of Punjab is relatively less (1.51 lakh tonnes in 2019-20) compared to several other states, the state always topped the country in fish productivity (around 6.5-6.6 ton/hectare), which is more th...

Hilsa culture in Freshwater pond after boat breeding in river.

The study focuses on the isolation, characterization, and expression analysis of a lectin from the hepatopancreas of Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The protein was isolated by affinity chromatography on a melibiose-agarose column. The molecular weight of the native protein was found to be ~120 kDa which consists of a single polypeptide of ~39.5 kDa. On...

Aquaculture contributes significantly to the world’s food security. Future aquaculture developments depend mainly on sustainable aquafeed production. Fish meal (FM) is considered unsustainable and not eco-friendly but remains a major protein ingredient in aquafeeds production. The aquaculture sector seeks sustainable protein sources that can reduce...

Hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha is a fascinating food fish. Its charming lustre, culinary flavour and medicinal importance make it a favourite of the people of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh in particular. However, it has complex habitat requirements, migrating between marine, estuarine and riverine waters. Usually, adults mature in the sea, and then ve...

Aquaculture operations in Andhra Pradesh which have hampered during first phase of COVID-19 continued in pandemic second wave due to manpower shortage, closure of domestic markets, restricted interstate transportation, collapsing market prices, change in consumer preference and disrupted exports. This has led to sluggishness in domestic markets res...

On-farm performance evaluation of the genetically improved variety of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii christened as CIFA-GI scampiTM was carried out in 14 districts of Odisha State, India during April 2019 to March 2020. Data were collected through personal interview of 46 farmers (28 CIFA-GI scampiTM and 18 non-GI scampi farmers) using...

A 60-day feeding trial was conducted to optimally reduce the fishmeal level in climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) fingerling diet using a dietary brewer’s spent yeast biomass (BSY) based diet. In this study, five isonitrogenous (35% CP) and isocaloric (19.15 MJ/Kg) feeds were prepared by replacing 0 (BSY0), 25% (BSY25), 50% (BSY50), 75% (BSY75) an...

Hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha, a euryhaline fish species, undertakes long migrations crossing diverse water bodies from river to sea to fulfil its life cycle. To culture hilsa in captivity, one important factor among others is to rear larvae up to fry stage in freshwater. Chlorella is one of the best of a few microalgae well accepted by Hilsa larvae...

The paper deals with Livelihood improvement through Aquaculture of Scheduled Caste Farmers of Kultali Block of West Bengal ,India

The study evaluated the effect of delayed initial feeding on the growth performance and length-weight relationship of Channa striata (Bloch, 1793) larvae. C. striata larvae [3 days post-hatch (dph); mean length: 5.960±0.32 mm] were reared in experimental tanks (10 l) at the stocking density of 5 larvae l-1 for 28 days in five treatments. The five t...

The effect of dietary fish protein hydrolysate (FPH) at inclusion levels of 0% (control), 5% (FPH5), 10% (FPH10) and 15% (FPH15) (w/w) on growth, digestive enzyme activity, immune response and antioxidant status of striped murrel, Channa striata (4.18 ± 0.04 g), was evaluated. The dietary FPH inclusion had significantly increased weight gain (WG),...

Clarias magur (Hamilton, 1822) is a highly priced commercially important species targeted for aquaculture diversification in India and SouthEast Asian countries. Weaning from live to formulated feed during larval rearing is critical for successful seed production. Hence, the present study aimed to standardise the effective weaning age to achieve hi...

Success story on survival of climbing perch through live food.

Giant freshwater prawn (GFP), Macrobrachium rosenbergii, is a tropical species widely cultured in several countries across the world. It has high market demand accompanied by attractive prices. The global farmed production of this species in 2018 was 237,124 tonnes (t) valued over 1.93 billion USD. Due to its importance in freshwater aquaculture, s...

An experiment was conducted for 75 days (5 November 2020 to 21 January 2021) at ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha focusing on economic evaluation of Nutrient Film Technique (NFT ) aquaponics system on a pilot-scale mode for rearing puntius (Puntius gonionotus) seed and marigold (Tagetes patula) plant in it. Fish culture tank, biofilter, hydroponics ta...

Sailfin armoured catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.), an alien invasive species of family Loricariidae has invaded extensively in wastewater-fed large aquaculture ponds (locally called 'bheries') of East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), West Bengal, India. As there is no viable controlling method at present, commonly these fishes are removed by different physic...

The Asian catfish, Clarias magur, is an endangered fish species, which is immensely important due to its high commercial value in India and other South‐East Asian countries. Various anthropogenic activities and natural habitat loss have greatly impacted the biodiversity of C. magur in natural water bodies, leading to the addition of this species to...

Carbon footprint analysis for different freshwater aquaculture practices in different states of India along with Bay of Bengal was done. In West Bengal, the average inputs as carbon equivalent (CE) were [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]kg/ha with an average output of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]kg live weight/ha. In Odisha, the input...

In spite of vast diverse fish genetic resource of India, several exotic species have been introduced into India. Chinese carps which were introduced in India with an objective of increasing the yields in aquaculture has paved way for composite fish culture in India. Introduction of exotic species for fisheries and aquaculture was successful in some...

Suckermouth armoured catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.) which is popularly called "Devil fish" in Andhra Pradesh, was recorded in 93.33% of fish ponds out of 600 ha surveyed in Krishna and West Godavari districts including mesohaline ponds wherein salinity ranges from 2 to 20‰. Pterygoplichthys spp. have ranged from 150 to 600 kg/ha that accounts to 2...

Striped murrel (snakehead) Channa striata, an air-breathing fish, is a delicacy among the consumers for its tenderness, less muscular spines and typical flavour. It is highly nutritive, recuperative and also known for its medicinal values. Unavailability of quality seed is a major constraint in murrel farming. The collection of murrel brooders for...

In spite of vast diverse fish genetic resource of India, several exotic species have been introduced into India. Chinese carps which were introduced in India with an objective of increasing the yields in aquaculture has paved way for composite fish culture in India. Introduction of exotic species for fisheries and aquaculture was successful in some...

In spite of vast diverse fish genetic resource of India, several exotic species have been introduced into India. Chinese carps which were introduced in India with an objective of increasing the yields in aquaculture has paved way for composite fish culture in India. Introduction of exotic species for fisheries and aquaculture was successful in some...

Abstract In spite of vast diverse fish genetic resource of India, several exotic species have been introduced into India. Chinese carps which were introduced in India with an objective of increasing the yields in aquaculture has paved way for composite fish culture in India. Introduction of exotic species for fisheries and aquaculture was successf...

India is the second largest fish producing country in the world, but our per capita fish consumption is less than the global average. Blessed with abundant water resources across the country, we are yet to exploit the full potential of the available resources. As the marine production is almost stagnant, the additional fish production has to be sou...

In the present study, there was assessment of effects of gonadotropin treatments on broodstock maturation, induced breeding, and spawning outcomes of striped snakehead in captivity. The striped snakehead (n = 128) were equally distributed in four concrete tanks (15 m²) and hormone implants (500 IU human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)/kg body weight)...

The Green House Gas Emission (GHGs) from the carp culture ponds (n = 12) of West Godavari, Krishna, and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh and from the ponds (n = 4) of Moyna, East Medinipur district of West Bengal, India was assessed through carbon storage and carbon footprint analysis. The average inputs as Carbon Equivalent (CE) were 14407 ± 265...

The problem of sewage disposal has received great attention worldwide. The raw sewage contains a variety of high inorganic and organic matters that affect natural water environment. To mitigate such problem, sewage may be recycled through aquaculture practice. Sewage recycling in aquaculture enhances water productivity through nutrients input. Prop...

Selective breeding of Macrobrachium rosenbergii with the aim of improving the growth rate was carried out for six generations at ICAR‐Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Odisha, India, in collaboration with WorldFish, Malaysia. Response to selection was estimated for harvest body weight using a fully pedigreed synthetic population. The dat...

Lectins are proteins that bind to the carbohydrate moieties on surface of bacteria, erythrocytes and other cells of invertebrates causing agglutination and mediate in recognition of foreign substances. In the present study, we isolated and characterized a lectin molecule present in the hemolymph of Macrobrachium rosenbergii, an important cultured f...

Portable Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) pabda hatchery consisting of three incubation pools and three rearing tanks having capacity to accommodate about 45,000 - 50,000 nos. fertilized eggs and to produce about 10,000 – 15,000 nos. of early fry of Ompok bimaculatus (pabda) in a single cycle was developed, established and operated at Kalyani Fi...

In the present work, the salinity tolerance level of Indian major carp, Catla catla, genetically improved Labeo rohita (Jayanti rohu) and Cirrhinus mrigala were ascertained in terms of weight gain and mortality by exposing the fishes gradually to different levels of salinities for 45 days. Overall analysis of the result showed that, the severity of...

One pilot-scale portable Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) aquaponic system has been designed, developed, and tested at ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar for a period of 90 days (October to December 2018) to study the efficiency of the new design. The experimental setup has three separate units, each consisting of four major components, such as Fibreglass Reinfor...

Larval growth and survival are significantly influenced by the various biotic and abiotic factors. Rearing tank background colour is one such factor affecting the larval production in finfish hatcheries. The present study evaluated the effect of five tank background colours (black, white, blue, green and red) on growth and survival of larvae of two...

Abstract A five-week laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of plant-based substrates for biofilm production and their effect on water quality as well as growth and survival of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879) post larvae. The experiment consisted of three treatments with a control, each with three rep...

The world's appetite for fish is growing steadily. Aquaculture has bridged that gap between the growing demand for fish and the almost stagnated wild fish catch, contributing at present nearly 47% of the world's total fish production of 171 million tonnes. Global aquaculture production has almost doubled between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that,...

The world's appetite for fish is growing steadily. Aquaculture has bridged that gap between the growing demand for fish and the almost stagnated wild fish catch, contributing at present nearly 47% of the world's total fish production of 171 million tonnes. Global aquaculture production has almost doubled between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that,...

Introduction of exotic fishes outside of their natural range to increase production or profitability increased rapidly since last century. In India also more than 350 exotic fishes were introduced legally or illegally mainly to boost aquaculture and aesthetics of aquarium. Though few exotic fishes contributed positively to the fisheries, particular...

Association of type I single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers with quantitative traits can provide an effective method for detecting genes and functions that are responsible for performance variation in domesticated species. In order to discover novel polymorphisms in candidate genes that could be associated with growth, fragments (175 to 668 b...

A 35 days experiment was conducted to study the effect of different feeding frequencies on growth and feed utilisation in climbing perch Anabas testudineus (Bloch 1792) fry. Four different feeding frequencies in triplicate viz., 2 (T1), 3 (T2), 4 (T3) and 5 (T4) times a day were evaluated. Fry (144 nos.) of climbing perch were randomly distributed...

The present article describes about the broodstock development, induced breeding, and seed production of the Mahanadi rita, Rita chrysea, a medium-sized catfish, of the bagridae family under captive conditions. Juvenile fish collected from the Mahanadi river and raised to broodstock in the captivity and successfully breed in captive condition for t...

Length-weight relationship (LWR) of 661 numbers of hatchery-produced magur, Clarias magur of all the life stages such as hatchlings, fry, fingerlings, juveniles, and adults were studied. The LWR of magur all the life stages were estimated and the equations are as follows, hatchlings W=0.0052*L1.282 (r²=0.8784), fry W=0.0088*L3.028 (r²=0.8113), fing...

The excessive and indiscriminate uses of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) through feed, fertilizers and manures in aquaculture ponds could play a vital role in the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). Therefore, it is important to know about the distributions of N and C in the aquaculture...

This is the training manual of SAARC Regional Training Program ‘Mass breeding and culture techniques of catfishes’ conducted at ICAR- Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar, India during 16-21 July 2018. The training was jointly organized by the SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dhaka, Bangladesh, ICAR-Central Institute...

An experiment of 65 days duration was conducted to study the effect of biofilm formed on different natural substrates at different substratum densities on the growth and survival of juveniles of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879). Natural substrates like dried paddy straw and cut grass were evaluated as substratum for biofilm...

We surveyed the fish farmers of five states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal of India for adaptation and mitigation strategies of climate change impact in freshwater aquaculture. In monsoon period especially when the cyclone occurred, overall 9% fish farmers responded regarding fish migration from one pond to another...

Phenotypic and genetic parameters were estimated for three body traits (harvest weight, carapace length and standard length) and for adult male morphotypes of the giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii in a fully pedigreed synthetic population in India. The data set included 9,173 progeny produced over four generations from 162 sires and...

The research and technology development in the portable hatchery technology for the carp is 20 years old. the book synthesizes genesis, process of technology development, technology commercialisation and impact has been analysed.

Abstract: Giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii is an important freshwater crustacean widely cultured in several countries and is the most cultured freshwater prawn species in India. Of late, its production has come down due to slow growth rate and disease occurrences. The Central Institute Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), Bhubaneswar in...

β-glucan binding protein (βGBP), a pattern recognition protein was purified from the haemolymph of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii by heparin affinity chromatography that showed a single band in native gradient PAGE. The β-glucan binding property of the purified protein was confirmed in a phenoloxidase (PO) assay, where addition of βGBP...

Bacterial diseases cause significant losses in many shrimp and prawn hatcheries worldwide. Vibrios in particular cause heavy mortalities and are ubiquitous and predominant pathogens in prawn culture environment. In lieu of any permanent preventive measures, selective breeding for developing disease resistant strain remains to be one of the approach...

Macrobrachium rosenbergii is an important freshwater prawn cultured in India. Though there is huge potential for increasing its production through monoculture as well as polyculture in existing carp culture ponds, aquaculture production of this species in India has been declining since 2006. Poor growth rate and low survival during culture, leading...

Macrobrachium rosenbergii, known as the giant freshwater prawn or Malaysian prawn, is the sixth largest aquaculture species in Asia. Knowledge of genetic diversity of M. rosenbergii is important to support management and conservation programmes, which will subsequently help in sustainable production of this economically important species. This stud...

Meat yield of 233 individuals of giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879), and their morphometric relationships were examined. Morphometric parameters of different length and weight measurements were recorded for both the sexes separately and subjected to analysis. The meat yield of prawns was size and sex dependent with fem...

The present study examined the variation in survival, proportion of male morphotypes, female and male proportion, female reproductive status and tag losses in nine crosses from a complete (3 × 3) diallel mating of three populations of Macrobrachium rosenbergii in India. The populations originated from Gujarat (north-west), Kerala (south-west) and O...

Giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii is an important freshwater crustacean widely cultured in several tropical and subtropical countries. The global production of 215,029 t was valued at $1.16 billion in 2010. Giant freshwater prawn production in India, the third largest producer in 2005, has shown a declining trend since then. Genetic...

A handy low cost device for dispensing the microbound larval food for prawn hatcheries was developed by the AICRP on APA (ICAR), CIFA, Bhubaneswar Centre. The unit was made from low density polyethylene plastic (LDPE) material. The material is having unique food grade properties like has excellent resistance to water, moisture and most organic solv...

Length-weight relationship and condition factor of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man, 1879) were investigated for different culture phases, developmental stages and sexes in the present study. Regression lines differed among the culture phases, developmental stages as well as between sexes. Significant difference in the slope was observed among dif...

The present study evaluated the role of recombinant RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein of Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV) in modulating the immune response and in reducing MrNV load in infected prawn. In the first experiment, prawns (25–30 g) were injected with recombinant RdRp protein (RP) at a concentration of 0, 1.0 and 10 μg...