Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.2
2.7
Journals
Animals
Special Issues
Feed Additives for Improving the Immunity of Aquatic Animals
share announcement

Feed Additives for Improving the Immunity of Aquatic Animals

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 October 2025 | Viewed by 837

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yang Ding

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Interests: fish immunology; fish diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Álvaro Fernández-Montero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fish Immunology and Pathology Group, Animal Health Research Centre (CISA-INIA-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Interests: aquaculture; fish nutrition; fish immunology; fish physiology; aquaculture fast growing species
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Aquaculture plays a vital role in global food security, and ensuring the health of aquatic animals is essential for maintaining production efficiency, environmental sustainability, and food safety; however, high stocking densities and environmental stressors suppress the immune systems of aquatic animals while simultaneously exposing them to a significant risk of disease outbreaks. Functional feeds, enriched with natural and synthetic additives, including, but not limited to, immunostimulants, prebiotics, probiotics, phytobiotics, and symbiotics, highlight the promising utilization of leveraging functional feeds to strengthen animals’ immunity and prevent aquatic diseases. This Special Issue invites researchers to share their findings that explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which feed additives modulate immune responses and shape microbiome homeostasis to maintain mucosal health and enhance disease resistance. The potential risks associated with the prolonged or excessive use of feed additives are also encouraged to be highlighted in this Special Issue. We aim to gather cutting-edge research that will not only expand our understanding of the nutritional immunology of aquatic animals, but also contribute to developing sustainable and innovative solutions to support the future of aquaculture.

Dr. Yang Ding
Dr. Álvaro Fernández-Montero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functional feeds
  • prebiotics
  • probiotics
  • symbiotics
  • phytobiotics
  • essential oils
  • immunomodulation
  • fish and shellfish immunology

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 2009 KB  
Article
Nutritional Intervention with Antimicrobial Peptides Improves Growth Performance, Muscle Quality, Antioxidant Capacity, and Immune Function of Crucian Carp (Carassius auratus) Through TLR4/NF-κB Signaling Pathway
by Xiaoqing Dong, Dan Jiang, Guijuan Qu and Guiqin Wang
Animals 2025, 15(17), 2554; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15172554 - 30 Aug 2025
Viewed by 496
Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small-molecule polypeptides with broad-spectrum antibacterial and immunomodulatory properties. As feed additives, they have demonstrated synergistic effects in aquaculture by enhancing growth performance and maintaining host health. Its negligible drug resistance makes it an ideal additive to replace antibiotics in [...] Read more.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small-molecule polypeptides with broad-spectrum antibacterial and immunomodulatory properties. As feed additives, they have demonstrated synergistic effects in aquaculture by enhancing growth performance and maintaining host health. Its negligible drug resistance makes it an ideal additive to replace antibiotics in the “antibiotic-free breeding” system. Antimicrobial peptides were added to the basic diet of the crucian carp (Carassius auratus) to assess their impacts on growth, muscle quality, antioxidant capacity, immune function, and key gene expression in the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. Crucian carp were fed with experimental diets containing antimicrobial peptides for 49 days, namely four treatments: L0 (0 g/kg), L1 (0.2 g/kg), L2 (0.4 g/kg), and L3 (0.6 g/kg), with three repetitions of each treatment. The findings indicated that AMPs had the potential to improve growth performance and muscle quality. The final weight, WGR, and SGR of crucian carp of group L1 significantly increased compared with groups L0 and L3 (p < 0.05). The condition factor of group L2 significantly increased compared with group L0 (p < 0.05). The FCR of groups L0, L1, and L2 was significantly reduced compared with group L3 (p < 0.05). The muscle redness of group L1 was significantly higher compared with groups L0, L2, and L3 (p < 0.05). The muscle shear force of groups L0, L1, and L2 was significantly lower compared with group L3 (p < 0.05). The crude protein content of groups L0, L1, and L2 showed significantly higher crude protein content than group L3 (p < 0.05). Conversely, the crude fat content was significantly lower in groups L1, L2, and L3 compared with group L0 (p < 0.05). The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of group L1 was significantly higher compared with groups L0, L2, and L3 (p < 0.05). The catalase (CAT) activity of groups L0 and L1 was significantly increased compared with groups L2 and L3 (p < 0.05). The malondialdehyde (MDA) content of groups L1 and L2 was significantly reduced compared with groups L0 and L3 (p < 0.05). The acid phosphatase (ACP) activity of groups L1 and L2 was significantly increased compared with group L0 (p < 0.05). The alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activity of group L1 was significantly increased compared with groups L0 and L3 (p < 0.05). Compared with groups L2 and L3, the lysozyme activity of group L1 was significantly increased (p < 0.05). The C3 content of groups L1, L2, and L3 was significantly higher compared with group L0 (p < 0.05). Similarly, C4 levels of groups L2 and L3 significantly exceeded group L0 (p < 0.05). For inflammatory cytokines, the IL-1 levels of groups L1 and L2 were significantly higher than those of group L0 (p < 0.05). The IL-6 and IL-12 levels of groups L0, L1, and L2 significantly increased compared with group L3 (p < 0.05). Compared with group L0, the levels of TNF and IFN-γ of groups L1, L2, and L3 were significantly higher (p < 0.05). Compared with group L0, the relative expression levels and protein expression levels of key genes TLR4, MyD88, IRAK4, TRAF6, and NF-κB of groups L1, L2, and L3 were significantly upregulated (p < 0.05). In conclusion, supplementation with 0.2–0.4 g/kg antimicrobial peptides promoted the growth of crucian carp, improved muscle quality, enhanced the antioxidant capacity, and boosted immunity through modulation of the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feed Additives for Improving the Immunity of Aquatic Animals)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-1
Back to TopTop