Crustacean Health, Stress and Disease
A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888). This special issue belongs to the section "Welfare, Health and Disease".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 March 2026 | Viewed by 7
Special Issue Editors
Interests: crab; crayfish; shrimp; nutrition and feed; disease; stress
Interests: aquaculture; crab; disease; immunology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, "Crustacean Health, Stress and Disease," centers on the interconnected dynamics of health regulation, stress responses, and disease pathogenesis in crustaceans, aiming to provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of this critical research field.
We are particularly interested in the physiological, molecular, and ecological mechanisms underlying crustacean health maintenance, the cascading effects of stressors on their biological systems, and the emergence, transmission, and impact of diseases. We emphasize the integration of these three pillars (health, stress, disease) in order to reveal holistic insights into crustacean wellbeing.
This Special Issue will focus on the core mechanisms of crustacean health, stress, and disease, covering a range of crustacean groups (including decapods, isopods, and amphipods) across various habitats. It should be explicitly clarified that, due to research emphasis and economic relevance, our current focus leans toward decapods with significant economic value (such as shrimp, crabs, and lobsters), given their extensive research foundation and practical importance.
Specific areas of investigation include the following:
- Health indicators and immune system functionality (e.g., hemocyte activity, antimicrobial peptide production, gut microbiota balance).
- Stressors and their impacts: environmental (temperature fluctuations, salinity changes, pollution, ocean acidification), biological (crowding, predation pressure, pathogenic invasion), and anthropogenic (aquaculture practices, habitat degradation).
- Disease etiology and dynamics: viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections (e.g., white spot syndrome virus, Vibrio spp., Hematodinium), as well as non-infectious disorders linked to stress or nutritional deficiencies.
- Interactions between stress and disease susceptibility, including molecular signaling pathways and epigenetic regulations.
- Diagnostic tools, prophylactic strategies (e.g., vaccines, probiotics), and management practices to enhance health resilience.
Dr. Cheng Chi
Dr. Jie Ji
Dr. Hengtong Liu
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. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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
- crustaceans
- health
- stress
- disease
- immune system
- aquaculture
- pathogenesis
- environmental stressors
- host–pathogen interactions
- sustainability
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