Freshwater aquaculture contributes ~55% of the total fish output in India (Dey, Financial Express, 14 February 2020). With the increasing demand for aquatic food products and supply failing to meet the requirements from capture fisheries, the necessity for intensive aquaculture has become apparent (Bueno et al., 2017;Kato &Freitas, 2015;Moffitt & Cajas-Cano, 2014). Despite this, there is still a significant gap between production and commercialization due to mass mortality caused by bacterial diseases (