Can Probiotics Affect Reproductive Processes of Aquatic Animals? - Aquaculture Nutrition: Gut Health, Probiotics and Prebiotics - page 328

12 Can Probiotics Affect Reproductive

Processes of Aquatic Animals?

Giorgia Gioacchini 1 , Elisabetta Giorgini 1 , Lisa Vaccari 2 and
Oliana Carnevali 1
1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell'Ambiente, Università Politecnica delle
Marche, Ancona, Italy
2 ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Basovizza, Italy

ABSTRACT

Commercial and ornamental aquaculture production continues to increase but reproductive
dysfunctions remain a bottleneck, and a limiting factor, for the production of many fish
species. Numerous studies have addressed the efficacy of probiotics in finfish but very few
studies have focused on fecundity. However, the results from the limited studies available
have demonstrated the positive effect of probiotic administration on freshwater, and marine,
teleost reproductive performance. The importance of the results achieved thus far infers
a relationship between the gut microbiota and the reproductive processes. This chapter
summarizes the present knowledge of this topic in fish.

12.1 INTRODUCTION

The number of aquatic species currently under domestication is rapidly rising, due to the devel-
opment of both commercial and ornamental aquaculture (Vannucci 2004; Duarte et al. 2007).
One of the biggest limiting factors in the development of the aquaculture industry is brood-
stock management which involves all the appropriate measures to enable a captive group of
fish to undergo reproductive maturation, spawning and production of fertilized eggs. Although
many cultured fish species achieve successful reproductive performance under cultured con-
ditions there remains a large number of important species which still exhibit reproductive
dysfunctions. Among these are freshwater eel ( Anguilla spp.), Japanese yellowtail and greater
amberjack ( Seriola spp.), some groupers ( Epinephelus spp.) and bluefin tuna ( Thunnus spp.)
(Ottolenghi etal. 2004). These dysfunctions, often due to the combination of captivity-induced
stress (Sumpter et al. 1994; Pankhurst and Van der Kraak 1997) and the lack of an appropri-
ate natural spawning environment (Zohar 1989a; 1989b; Yaron 1995; Battaglene and Selosse