LAB inhibitory against V. harveyiwere isolated in greater number from wild shrimp than cultured shrimp indicating high prevalence and diversity of LAB in the wild shrimp. This conclusion is supported from the observation of the antibacterial activity level,which highly varied among the LAB isolates. In addition, all LAB isolates exhibited high inhibitory level of 50 AU ml_1 against V. harveyi were obtained from wild shrimp, and none was from the cultured one. On the contrary, the gut of juvenile white shrimp reared in water from intensive shrimp farm exhibited greater diversity of Gram-negative bacteria than those reared in seawater,
however Gram-positive bacteria was not included in this study [23]. Most LAB isolates obtained in this work were coccoid shape, accounted for 78.23 and 79.49% of total LAB isolates, respectively. Coccoid LAB such as Streptococcus, Lactococcus and Enterococcus are
very common and prevalent LAB in the digestive tract of aquatic animals [24,25]. According to the identification of fifty seven LAB strains isolated from different sources of aquatic animals using