Evaluation of Hydrogen Peroxide effectiveness in fungal disinfection of Acipenser persicus eggs

Abstract

Fungal infection during incubation of Acipenser persicus eggs claims high mortalities in the hatcheries each year. Malachite Green has been used for many years to disinfect eggs during incubation, but recent studies have shown that the compound might be toxic and potentially mutagenic. In addition, there are implications in the literature for the chemical to be teratogenic and tumor promoter in animals and humans. One of the best replacements for the chemical is Hydrogen Peroxide (H202) which has been categorized as a low priority regulation (LPR) drug by FDA. During a two year study, six experiments were carried out on the effectiveness of Malachite Green and Hydrogen Peroxide on the infected eggs of Persian sturgeon with fungi while keeping another group of the eggs as control in Yuschenkov incubators. The chemicals were applied to the eggs at a concentration of 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 and 9000 µl/l. Hatching rate and number of fungal colonies weight percentage of infected to that of healthy eggs were used to assess the usefulness of the chemicals in controlling the infection. The results showed that eggs treated with 1000 and 1500 µl/l of H202, compared to Malachite Green and other doses of the chemicals, had higher hatching rate, and were free from fungal infections. The separation and removal of the infected eggs was also easier when H202 was used. Hence, the chemical can be introduced to the sturgeon hatcheries as an appropriate anti-fungal agent.