Aquaculture disease management and microbiota

Aquaculture disease management and microbiota research examines how fish and other farmed aquatic animals defend themselves against pathogens, and how the communities of microorganisms living in and on those animals shape that defense. As global aquaculture expands to meet food demand, bacterial and viral outbreaks cause substantial economic losses, while the overuse of antibiotics in fish farming has accelerated the spread of resistant bacteria into aquatic ecosystems and, potentially, human food chains. Researchers are actively investigating how probiotics and dietary supplements can reinforce innate immune pathways and stabilize gut microbiota to reduce reliance on antibiotics, and how chronic stressors common in intensive farming—crowding, poor water quality—suppress immune function in ways that make fish more vulnerable to disease. A central open question is how to translate laboratory findings about host-microbiome interactions into scalable, species-specific interventions that work reliably under real farming conditions.

Works

99,263

Total citations

1,498,948

Keywords

Fish ImmunologyAquacultureProbioticsInnate ImmunityGut MicrobiotaStress Response