Team:ITB Indonesia/Integrated Human
Expert Consultation
Dr. Gede Suantika
Background: Despite the apparent threat, shrimp research in Indonesia is still not a main focus by the government, hence it is difficult to find holistic studies containing updated data of the shrimp aquaculture's current status. Therefore, we need to consult to the experts, the farmers, and the aquaculture community.
Goals: To give us insight about the main cause of shrimp aquaculture loss.
Through literature studies, we have learned the many diseases that threaten shrimp aquaculture, mainly because of the animal's lack of an adaptive immune system. Among these diseases are White Feces Disease (WFD), White Spot Disease (WS), and Infectious Myonecrosis Disease (Myo). Based on Dr. Gede's experience, WFD is the main cause of major losses in shrimp aquaculture. This particular disease is caused by a bacteria called Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Unlike some of the recent emerging diseases such as Myo, WFD has been lurking and threatening every cycle of shrimp aquaculture ever since Litopenaeus vannamei (or white-leg shrimp) started becoming a trendy commodity in Indonesia. Moreover, no one has a solid solution for its prevention or treatment. Therefore, focusing on WFD as our topic would be an impactful decision.
Shrimp Farmer Survey
Mr. Vivid, Mr. Bambang, and Mr. Sukarma
Background: Despite the apparent threat, shrimp research in Indonesia is still not a main focus by the government, hence it is difficult to find holistic studies containing updated data of the shrimp aquaculture's current status. Therefore, we need to consult to the experts, the farmers, and the aquaculture community. Goals: We conducted a survey to three shrimp ponds in West Java to analyze the main problems that arise in shrimp ponds according to farmers. Furthermore, we also explored the aspects from other factors, such as social and economical issues, to give us guidelines for the system design and development of our product.
WFD and WS were always the top two causes of major loss in the shrimp aquaculture ponds that we have surveyed. The shrimp farmers tried their best to prevent these diseases by frequently checking the water quality, mainly pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen concentration, Total Vibrio Count (TVC), Total Bacteria Count (TBC), and Plankton Diversity. To assess Vibrio population density in the water, there are three methods used by the farmers: 1) Check daily in their own mini-lab using TPC technique, 2) Check weekly by sending water samples to laboratory analysis services, and 3) Rarely checking the actual numbers, thus predicting the status solely based on experience through observation of shrimp feeding behavior. Regarding their feedback toward the development of our technology, the shrimp farmers wanted to ensure that our product comes with an affordable price, or at least similar to the costs of using TPC analysis services in the laboratory. The shrimp farmers generally have a fairly good exposure to technology, judging by their ability to operate smartphones and utilize platforms such as Whatsapp Messenger as a means of communication. Some farmers even have operated automatic feeder devices that can be integrated with smartphones through an internet connection. They also belong to Shrimp Club Indonesia as their main social platform.
Shrimp Club Indonesia
Mr. Azmi
Background: Shrimp Club Indonesia (SCI) is an independent association consisting of shrimp farmers from all over Indonesia. SCI plays a role in shrimp aquaculture as a platform to exchange information and knowledge between farmers. Information disseminated may include news of an outbreak of disease or promotions of new products by private companies. Goals: We contacted representatives from SCI, as the unifier of shrimp farmers in Indonesia, to initiate cooperation in the development of our technology, to facilitate the propagation of information from us to the farmers and understand more about the reality of shrimp aquaculture in Indonesia.
The government through Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries plays a role in conducting seminars and certifications to improve the quality of harvested products so that they can be exported. But the role of the government in dealing with shrimp disease both in terms of research and in the form of financial assistance is less active than private companies. Generally, such companies also offer their product and service packages while providing assistance to shrimp farmers.
The structure of the SCI itself is divided into a number of regional groups at the provincial level. The role of the regional SCI is to assist permission administration and also hold regional counseling. Frequently, the problems in each region may be different from one another, hence the regional SCI would do an occasional site visit if there is a disease issue in a particular area.
In anticipating diseases in shrimp ponds, farmers generally use probiotics to maintain microbial stability and the nitrogen cycle in water. There are almost no farmers who use antibiotics for disease management purposes because beside the high price, it also disturbs the stability of water quality.
Wetlab and Drylab
The weakness of the conventional technique (TPC) is that it takes a relatively long time (1-3 days) to get the results and requires a large amount of labor when committed daily. Not to mention, Vibrio's population dynamics and patterns in shrimp aquaculture systems are very difficult to be predicted. This can hinder the handling of WFD disease and the results can only be known after the symptoms have appeared in the pond (White Feces). Most of the time, occurrence like this are too late to be handled and forcing the farmers to harvest the shrimp prematurely.
Based on all these inputs, we developed and modeled the genetically engineered Escherechia coli to detect AHL from Vibrio parahaemolyticus and then reports it as fluorescence by GFP. The values of this technology are faster and easier than the conventional methods to get the results. This will enable the farmer to adapt and act responsively in real time to changes of Vibrio concentration in the water.
eFishery
Anshori and Ahmad
Background: eFishery is an Aquaculture Intelligence startup company in Indonesia and already gain popularity between aquaculture farmers because of its products. One of their products, is an Automatic Fish Feeder that can detect fish behavior and integrates the data to adjust the feeding rate. As for shrimp, eFishery has not yet developed analysis of shrimp behavior, hence only relying on automatic feeding. eFishery uses an Internet of Things system that allows shrimp farmers to use a mobile phone application to monitor their ponds, adjust the amount of feed and set their feeding time.
Goals: If this product can be integrated with the Internet of Things, the farmers will be able to receive a notification of their pond status in terms of the water quality, both biotic and abiotic. In our perspective, this collaboration also opens the potential to commercialize our product that will benefit the farmers.
From their perspective, we must take into account upscaling issue, economical issue, environmental issue, and regulation issue. Upscaling of the technology mainly the bacteria production must consider the biosafety of the facility and must be cost efficient so it can achieve lowest manufacturing cost. That issue also connected to economical issue, the product price must onbe cheap enough so moderate shrimp farmers can afford to buy it. This issue drives us to develop our own device because comercial spectrophotometer in the market are too expensive for Indonesian shrimp farmers.
As for environmental and regulation issue, currently Indonesian law do not permitting any dispersal or application of genetically engineered microbes to the environment in any ways. Those kind of microbes are worried to disrupt ecological balance, spread unwanted traits to another microbes such as antibiotic resistance, or even becoming pathogen for humans. These concerns lead us to think thoroughly about the safety of our device and technology, so we developed an engineering control to our device and its standard operational procedure.
Prototyping
Background: There are no readily available technology (via spectrophotometer and fluorometer) that is affordable within the capability of shrimp farmers.
Goals: We decided to build our own model of spectrophotometer to accommodate our needs.
Early Adapters
Mr. Bambang and Andri
Background: The final design of the device must be best suited for the hands of the shrimp farmers.
Goals: We brought the 3D printed prototype to the shrimp farmers to explain the basic mechanism of how the device works and also collected suggestions about the model of the device for further improvements.
The shrimp farmers preferred the device to display not only takeaway information such as "threatening" or "not threatening", but also the numbers so they can learn how the Vibrio density fluctuates throughout the cycle and how the bacteria responds to their treatment toward the shrimp pond. The younger generation of shrimp farmers also preferred the device to be connected to their smartphone for ease of tracking and documentation purposes.
