Aquaculture is a growing sector providing food for a major part of our population; however, disease risk continues to be a threat to this sector. One such issue is the transfer of pathogenic bacteria from live feed such as Artemia, to the livestock. In this dissertation six probiotic Bacillus strains were assessed for their co-cultivation potential with Artemia. As a follow-up their glycan signatures were analyzed and compared with the glycan signatures of the same bacteria when cultivated in LB10 medium. All assessed strains in this dissertation, except B. amyloliquefaciens LMG9814, were able to be co-cultivated with Artemia. B. megaterium DSM1668 appeared to be the best performing Bacillus strain. Significant differences in individual sugar expressions were found when these bacteria were cultivated in different manners. The glycan diversity index of these bacteria reduced when they were co-cultivated with Artemia compared to cultivation in rich LB10 medium. This could indicate that these bacteria might have different probiotic characteristics when co-cultivated with Artemia. In conclusion the co-cultivation of probiotic bacteria with live feed is possible and influences the bacterial glycan expression which should be further investigated as a sustainable disease management strategy.
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