Novel Feeds Affect Fish Growth Performance and Immunity

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Aquatic Animals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 830

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Department of Sciences and Technologies, University of Sannio, 82100 Benevento, Italy
Interests: feed additives; fish health; animal immunity; feeding; neuroscience; obesity; gut–brain axis
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Dear Colleagues,

The aquaculture industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the food production sector worldwide. This has led to a constant challenge to seek the best fish farming conditions while preserving the environment and creating sustainable aquaculture. To date, numerous multi-stressor conditions have been found to impact fish health and well-being, such as nutrition, inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases, and water quality. Approved antibiotics and chemotherapeutics are used to address some of these problems, but these negatively affect the immune system of aquatic animals and are also harmful to global health and the environment. In this context, researchers and aquaculture industries are making numerous efforts to find other prevention approaches such as the use of bioactive compounds from plants as immunostimulants and dietary supplements, new functional diets containing feed additives capable of preserving fish health, or insects as alternative protein sources.

Taking into account that in the era of the circular economy, it is important to select new economically advantageous ingredients by maximizing resource efficiency and reducing waste in the agri-food supply chain, this SI aims to understand the real effects of these new feed formulations on growth performance, nutritional status, immunity, microbiota, and oxidative status. Different approaches and techniques can be used to test the use of unconventional feed ingredients, such as plant-based products, micro- and macro-algae, bacteria and yeast as single-cell protein, and insect meal, in the aquaculture sector to improve fish health, prevent diseases, and preserve the environment, promoting a more sustainable aquaculture

Dr. Roberta Imperatore
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • feed additives
  • insect meal
  • nutraceuticals
  • functional ingredients
  • pre- and pro-biotics
  • peripheral and central inflammation
  • immunity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 2993 KiB  
Article
Mixtures of Algal Oil and Terrestrial Oils in Diets of Tiger Puffer (Takifugu rubripes)
by Lu Zhang, Haoxuan Li, Ziling Song, Qingyan Gao, Chenchen Bian, Qiang Ma, Yuliang Wei, Mengqing Liang and Houguo Xu
Animals 2025, 15(9), 1187; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15091187 - 22 Apr 2025
Viewed by 366
Abstract
The n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFAs) have a key role in maintaining fish growth and health. However, fish oil (FO), the main source of n-3 LC-PUFAs, is in relative shortage due to the rapid development of the aquaculture industry. In this [...] Read more.
The n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFAs) have a key role in maintaining fish growth and health. However, fish oil (FO), the main source of n-3 LC-PUFAs, is in relative shortage due to the rapid development of the aquaculture industry. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of replacing fish oil with mixtures of algal oil (AO) from Schizochytrium sp. and terrestrially sourced oils (animal oil poultry oil (PO) or vegetable oil rapeseed oil (RO)) in the diets of juvenile tiger puffer (average initial body weight 23.8 ± 1.51 g). An 8-week feeding trial was conducted using three experimental diets: a control diet containing 6% added FO (control FO-C) and two diets with 3% AO + 3% PO or RO (groups AO+PO and AO+RO, respectively), replacing FO. Each diet was fed to triplicate tanks with 25 fish in each tank. The weight gain, feed conversion ratio, body composition, and serum biochemical parameters were not significantly different among the three groups, except that the AO+PO group had a significantly lower muscle lipid content than the other two groups. The AO-added diets significantly increased the DHA content in whole fish, muscle, and liver samples but significantly reduced the EPA content. The oil mixture treatments significantly increased the contents of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) but significantly decreased the contents of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) in the liver and whole fish samples. However, the MUFA and SFA contents in the muscle samples were not significantly different among the dietary groups. The diets with oil mixtures did not affect the hepatic histology but tended to result in the atrophy of intestinal villi. The treatment diets downregulated the hepatic gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines (il-1β and tnf-α) and the fibrosis marker gene, acta2. However, the AO+PO diet inhibited the intestinal gene expression of the tight junction protein, claudin 18. In the muscle, the treatment diets upregulated the expression of genes related to cell differentiation and apoptosis (myod, myog, myf6, myf5, bcl-2, and bax). In conclusion, Schizochytrium sp. oil in combination with terrestrial oils (poultry oil or rapeseed oil) can be an effective alternative to fish oil in the diets of tiger puffer, but the mixing strategy may be better modified in consideration of intestinal health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Feeds Affect Fish Growth Performance and Immunity)
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