Aquaculture disease management and microbiota

Aquaculture disease management and microbiota research examines how fish defend themselves against pathogens, how the communities of microorganisms living in and on fish shape those defenses, and how aquaculture practices can be designed to support both. Because farmed fish are raised at high densities under conditions that elevate stress and suppress immunity, infectious disease remains one of the industry's most significant causes of economic loss and welfare concern. Decades of reliance on antibiotics have accelerated resistance in both aquatic and human-associated bacteria, pushing researchers toward alternatives such as probiotics, prebiotics, and plant-derived immunostimulants that can prime innate immune pathways without the same risks. Active questions include how precisely the gut microbiota communicates with immune cells to calibrate inflammatory responses, and how interventions developed in controlled trials can be made reliable enough to work across the variable conditions of commercial farms.

Works

101,272

Total citations

1,527,601

Keywords

Fish ImmunologyAquacultureProbioticsInnate ImmunityGut MicrobiotaStress Response