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A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Feeding".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 April 2023) | Viewed by 18478

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Prof. Dr. Shao-Yang Hu

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Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Hseufu Road, Neipu, Pingtung 912, Taiwan
Interests: probiotics; aquaculture; immunostimulants; gene expression; bacteriocin; exopolysaccharides
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, aquaculture production for human consumption has increased rapidly. However, associated diseases have become a major potential threat to the sustainable development of aquaculture. The ban on the use of antibiotics as prophylactic agents or growth promoters has become an international consensus; thus, alternative strategies for biocontrol in aquaculture need to be urgently developed. Recently, great efforts have been made in the study of functional substances (prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics and plant extracts, etc.) as immunostimulants in fish and shellfish production. This Special Issue welcomes contributions on the topics involving a variety of functional substances in the nutrition metabolism, immunomodulation, disease resistance and gut microbiota of fish. The eminent research in these fields should hopefully contribute to the progression of aquaculture toward sustainable development. Therefore, I am pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of the journal Fishes, titled “Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish”.

Dr. Shao-Yang Hu
Guest Editor

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

probiotics
prebiotics
synbiotics
functional ingredients
nutrition metabolism
growth
immune response
gut microbiota

Related Special Issue

Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish - Volume II in Fishes

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3204 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Marine Microalgae on the Developmental Growth of the Sea Urchin Larviculture Anthocidaris crassipina

by Yiru Chu, De-Sing Ding, Wei-Ting Sun, Cyril Glenn Satuito and Chih-Hung Pan

Fishes 2023, 8(6), 278; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8060278 - 24 May 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1175

Abstract

The sea urchin is a very important aquatic economic organism in many countries and has high food value. However, it has recently been heavily fished, and it would be of great importance to the sustainable development of coral reefs to develop large-scale aquaculture of sea urchins. Sea urchins are prone to death during larval development. Therefore, in this study, three kinds of microalgae were used as the initial food for sea urchins to evaluate whether different kinds of microalgae can improve their survival and growth rates. Chaetoceros muelleri (C), Isochrysis galbana tml (I), and Dunaliella salina (D) were fed to A. crassipina at concentrations of 5000, 10,000, 20,000, and 30,000 cell mL⁻¹. A fasted group was used as control (N). The final body length, final body width, final stomach length, rudiment length, survival rate and morphology were measured to evaluate development and growth. The results showed that feeding with C. muelleri resulted in better growth and survival. After 9 days of feeding with C(20,000 cells mL⁻¹), the rudiment length reached 203.33 ± 12.47 µm. The onset of metamorphosis was observed 12 days post-feeding. The survival rate after feeding C was also significantly higher than that after feeding I and D. In summary, when sea urchins are breeding, it is recommended to choose C(20,000 cells mL⁻¹) or C(30,000 cells mL⁻¹) as the initial feed for larvae to increase the growth and survival of sea urchin seedlings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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13 pages, 2424 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microencapsulation of Bacillus subtilis E20 Probiotic, a Promising Approach for the Enrichment of Intestinal Microbiome in White Shrimp, Penaeus vannamei

by Ann-Chang Cheng, Rolissa Ballantyne, Shieh-Tsung Chiu and Chun-Hung Liu

Fishes 2023, 8(5), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8050264 - 16 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1771

Abstract

Microencapsulation is an advanced technique used to improve the viability of probiotics and minimize sensitivity during processing, storage, and in the gastrointestinal environment. Two dietary treatments including a control and an encapsulated probiotic, Bacillus subtilis E20 (EP), were used to evaluate the efficacy in improving the intestinal microbiome of white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, after a 60-feeding trial. The 16S rDNA next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis indicated that shrimp fed the EP diet generated higher amplicon reads than shrimp fed the control diet. No significant differences were observed in the α-diversity index of the intestinal microbiota of shrimp that were fed the control and EP diet. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria was relatively abundant in the microbiota of shrimp fed both the control and EP diet. The treatment with EP increased the expression of Tenericutes, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes, more than the control. The PC analysis revealed that the EP diet altered the bacterial profile in shrimp’s intestines into forming different clusters. Unique genera such as Luteolibacter, Simkaniaceae, Haemophilus, Pirellulaceae, Filomicrobium, Sphingomonas, and Erysipelotrichaceae UCG-003 along with well-known probiotic genera Bacillus and Lactobacillus were found in the intestine of shrimp fed the EP diet. The PCA eigenvector plots indicated a higher abundance of Bacillus in shrimp fed with EP diet, but a higher abundance of Vibrio in shrimp fed with control diet. These results suggest that encapsulated B. subtilis E20 can be beneficial to shrimp microbiota. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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15 pages, 5030 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Two Probiotic Candidates of the Genus Psychrobacter Modulate the Immune Response and Disease Resistance after Experimental Infection in Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus, Linnaeus 1758)

by Sven Wuertz, Filipa Beça, Eva Kreuz, Konrad M. Wanka, Rita Azeredo, Marina Machado and Benjamin Costas

Fishes 2023, 8(3), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8030144 - 28 Feb 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1951

Abstract

Probiotic bacteria are a recognized alternative to classical methods of disease prophylaxis and therapy. We tested the effects of their application on the immune reaction in juvenile turbot. To prevent digestion of the probiotics, rectal administration was applied to maximise colonization, by-passing digestion in the stomach. The application of Psychrobacter nivimaris and Psychrobacter faecalis showed beneficial effects on the inflammatory response and disease resistance after infection with the common pathogen Tenacibaculum maritimum. Treatment with P. nivimaris and P. faecalis resulted in 0% and 8% mortalities post-infection, while in the treatment control, an elevated mortality of 20% was observed. In the challenge controls (no infection), no mortalities were observed during the entire experimental period. After an experimental infection, mRNA expression of selected immune markers (mhc II α, il-1β, tcr, tgf β and tnf α) were determined by RT-QPCR at 0, 1 and 5 days post-infection (dpi). At 0 dpi, gene expression was comparable between the treatments and the treatment control, suggesting that probiotics did not act via immune stimulation of the host. At 1 dpi, all genes were up-regulated in the treatment control but not in the probiotic groups, indicating that the infection in probiotic-treated fish developed at a less severe level. At 5 dpi, mRNA expression returned to baseline levels. As a conclusion, the native probiotic candidates P. nivimaris and P. faecalis improved survival, whereas, in the control, mortality increased and expression of the immune markers was up-regulated post infection. This highlights a potential application of P. nivimaris and P. faecalis in disease prophylaxis, but further research is needed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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15 pages, 2776 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Administration of the Potential Probiotic Paenibacillus ehimensis NPUST1 Enhances Expression of Indicator Genes Associated with Nutrient Metabolism, Growth and Innate Immunity against Aeromonas hydrophila and Streptococcus indie Infections in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

by Pei-Hui Lin, Sai-Wei Chen, Zhi-Hong Wen and Shao-Yang Hu

Fishes 2022, 7(6), 386; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060386 - 12 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1606

Abstract

Probiotics as antibiotic alternatives for preventing and controlling infectious diseases are a relatively eco-friendly strategy in aquaculture. The bacteriocin-producing probiotic Paenibacillus ehimensis NPUST1 was isolated from tilapia culture pond water in our previous study. The present study demonstrated that P. ehimensis NPUST1 produced hydrolytic enzymes, including protease, amylase, cellulase, xylanase and lipase. The effects of P. ehimensis NPUST1 on zebrafish nutrient metabolism, growth performance and innate immunity were evaluated by measuring the expression of indicator genes in zebrafish after feeding P. ehimensis NPUST1 at doses of 10⁶ and 10⁷ CFU/g for 8 weeks. There was an obvious increase in the hepatic mRNA expression of carbohydrate metabolism-related genes, including glucokinase, hexokinase 1, glucose-6-phosphatase, and pyruvate kinase, and growth-related genes, including the growth hormone receptor and insulin-like growth factor-1. The expression of the innate immune-related genes including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-15, tumor necrosis factor-α, toll-like receptor (TLR)-1, TLR-4, complement component C3b and lysozyme were significantly increased in P. ehimensis NPUST1-supplemented fish. A significant reduction in cumulative mortality was exhibited in P. ehimensis NPUST1-supplemented fish after infection with Aeromonas hydrophila and Streptococcus iniae. In conclusion, our data suggested that P. ehimensis NPUST1 supplementation in feed could potentially improve nutrient metabolism and growth in addition to enhancing innate immunity and disease resistance against A. hydrophila and S. iniae in zebrafish. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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13 pages, 2409 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Growth Performance, Nutritional Quality, and Immune-Related Gene Expression of the Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis) in Pond Ecosystem as Influenced by Stocking Density

by Ziyu Wang, Zhenfang Mao, Xiaoyong Li, Minjie Zhu, Linjie Li, Feng Mei, Peiying Huang, Jiahao Hou, Shaoqin Jian and Daxian Zhao

Fishes 2022, 7(6), 362; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060362 - 29 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1197

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of stocking density on growth performance, nutritional quality, and immune-related gene expression of Eriocheir sinensis and water quality in pond ecosystems. E. sinensis were randomly divided into five density groups (G1: 1.2 inds/m²; G2: 1.5 inds/m²; G3: 1.8 inds/m²; G4: 2.1 inds/m²; G5: 2.4 inds/m²) based on their breeding densities, and three replicates were set up for each density group, for a total of fifteen ponds. After 169 days of breeding, the muscle, hepatopancreatic tissue, and hemolymph of E. sinensis, randomly selected from each group, were collected for analysis. Body weight (BW), carapace length, and carapace width increased with breeding time, and the BW of E. sinensis in G3 was higher than that in the other groups. In the muscle and hepatopancreas, the crude lipid content in the G3 group was higher than that in the other groups (p > 0.05). In the muscle tissue, the contents of total, essential, and delicious amino acids in the G3 group were higher than those in the other groups. The expression levels of immune-related genes in G5 were higher than those in the other groups. The value of pH decreased and NO₂-N increased significantly in the G5 group and pH, as a synergetic factor of culture density, affected the growth performance of E. sinensis. In conclusion, stocking density has a certain impact on the growth performance, nutrition quality, and immunity of E. sinensis and water quality in pond ecosystems, and a stocking density of 1.8 inds/m² can be considered optimal for rearing in pond ecosystems of the Poyang Lake region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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14 pages, 1774 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Dietary Supplementation with Prebiotic Chitooligosaccharides Enhances the Growth Performance, Innate Immunity and Disease Resistance of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

by Nurmalasari, Chun-Hung Liu, Ir. M. Maftuch and Shao-Yang Hu

Fishes 2022, 7(6), 313; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060313 - 29 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1370

Abstract

Prebiotics acting as immunosaccharides exhibit immunomodulatory functions to improve the immune defense of the host against infectious diseases. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of dietary chitooligosaccharide (COS) supplementation on the growth, innate immunity and disease resistance of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed a diet containing 0.4%, 0.8% and 1.2% COSs for 8 weeks. The results showed significant increases in weight gain (WG), feed efficiency (FE) and specific growth rate (SGR) in COS-supplemented fish compared to fish in the control group. The fish exhibited a significant decrease in cumulative mortality in fish fed 0.8% and 1.2% COS when challenged with Streptococcus iniae. The immune parameters, including phagocytotic activity (PA), respiratory burst (RB) activity, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities of the head kidney and serum lysozyme, as well as the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-8, were revealed in 0.8% and 1.2% COS-supplemented fish. These results demonstrated that COS could be used as a prebiotic and that dietary supplementation with 0.8% COS could improve growth performance and innate immunity against pathogen infections in Nile tilapia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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12 pages, 282 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Probiotics on Growth Performance, Haematological and Biochemical Profiles in Siberian Sturgeon (Acipenser baerii Brandt, 1869)

by Elena Eugenia Mocanu, Viorica Savin, Marcel Daniel Popa and Floricel Maricel Dima

Fishes 2022, 7(5), 239; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050239 - 07 Sep 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2557

Abstract

The use of probiotics in aquaculture has become a necessity to increase disease resistance. Probiotics are also capable of increasing feed digestion and conversion, decreasing sensitivity to stress, and improving the health of the fish. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of probiotics on survival, welfare, growth indices and blood composition in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), reared in a recirculating system. Diets were supplemented with Lactobacillus acidophilus (FLa) and Saccharomyces boulardii (FSb), separately and combined (FLa + Sb). The effect of probiotics was investigated on 2000 fish with a mean weight of 8.82 ± 0.29 g/specimen. Fish were fed for eight weeks with four different diets: a control without probiotics, one with the addition of lactic acid bacteria (La), one with the addition of yeast (Sb), and one with a mixture of bacteria and yeast in equal proportions (50% La + 50% Sb). FLa + Sb showed a better condition factor (Fulton coefficient, K = 0.39%) and significantly higher growth performance in terms of individual growth (WGi = 35.56 g), total growth gain (WGt = 15.30 g), specific growth rate (SGR, 2.70%/day), and feed conversion ratio (FCR = 1.58), compared to the control. The concentration of lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils was higher in the tanks fed with probiotics compared to the control. The presence of probiotics caused a decrease in cholesterol and glucose. There were significant differences between the Immunoglobulin M values identified in the tank fed with FLa + Sb and the control tank. The results showed that the addition of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, introduced as probiotics in the diets of Acipenser baerii, reared in a recirculating system, improved the growth indicators, survival, and welfare of the fish. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

11 pages, 1115 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intestinal Lipase Characterization in Common Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) Juveniles

by Bartolo Concha-Frías, Martha Gabriela Gaxiola-Cortes, Fanny Janet De la Cruz-Alvarado, Luis Daniel Jimenez Martinez, Emyr Saul Peña-Marin, Marcia Angélica Oliva-Arriagada, Joe Luis Arias-Moscoso and Carlos Alfonso Alvarez-González

Fishes 2022, 7(3), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7030107 - 10 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2653

Abstract

The common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) is a euryhaline fish with high commercial demand in the Mexican southeast, Caribbean, and South America. However, some aspects of its digestive physiology are still unknown, particularly in relation to lipid hydrolysis. Therefore, the characterization of the digestive lipase of this species was carried out. Our results show that the digestive lipase’s optimal temperature is 35 °C, being stable between 25 and 35 °C, and shows maximum activity at pH 9, with stability between pH 5 and 8. Different degrees of inhibition were presented by Orlistat (61.4%), Ebelactone A (90.36%), Ebelactone B (75.9%), SDS 1% (80.7%), SDS 0.1% (73.5%), and SDS at 0.01% (34.9%). Orlistat and Ebelactone A and B completely inhibited the lipase band in the zymogram, but not SDS addition. Lipase showed a molecular weight of 43.8 kDa. The high lipase activities in the digestive tract indicate the importance of lipids in the diet of C. undecimalis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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18 pages, 3199 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Growth Performance, Feed Utilization, Gut Integrity, and Economic Revenue of Grey Mullet, Mugil cephalus, Fed an Increasing Level of Dried Zooplankton Biomass Meal as Fishmeal Substitutions

by Hamdy A. Abo-Taleb, Mohamed M. M. El-feky, Ahmad M. Azab, Mohamed M. Mabrouk, Mohamed A. Elokaby, Mohamed Ashour, Abdallah Tageldein Mansour, Othman F. Abdelzaher, Khamael M Abualnaja and Ahmed E. Sallam

Fishes 2021, 6(3), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes6030038 - 10 Sep 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3424

Abstract

Fishmeal is the most expensive feedstuff in the aquafeed and one of the most environmentally limiting factor of aquaculture development. Therefore, the search for alternative protein sources is a continuous process. The present feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing fishmeal with zooplankton biomass meal (ZBM) on the growth performance, nutrient utilization, intestine, and liver histological changes of grey mullet, Mugil cephalus (initial weight of 0.10 ± 0.01 g). Five isoproteic (35% crude protein) and isolipidic (8% crude lipid) diets were formulated as the control diet (Z₀) and the other four diets (Z₂₅, Z₅₀, Z₇₅, and Z₁₀₀), where 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of fishmeal was replaced by ZBM, respectively. After 60 days of feeding, the final weight, weight gain, and daily growth index of the grey mullet fed the Z₁₀₀ diet were higher than those fed the control diet (p < 0.05). In addition, the better values of feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio and lipid efficiency ratio were recorded in the fish fed with the Z₁₀₀ diet. Additionally, the intestinal villus length, crypts depth, and muscle thickness were significantly improved with ZBM inclusion (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, there were no histopathological changes observed on the liver when compared with the control group. From the economic point of view, dietary substitution of fishmeal by ZBM (Z₁₀₀) reduced the cost of diet formulation by 18% and the price per kg weight gain by about 40%. Overall, according to the findings of this study, substituting fishmeal with ZBM up to 100% could improve growth performance, feed utilization, gut health status, and profit ability of rearing M. cephalus juveniles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Immunity of Fish and Shellfish)

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