Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Prebiotics in Finfish: An Update
Einar Ringø 1 , Arkadios Dimitroglou 2 , Seyed Hossein
Hoseinifar 3 and Simon J. Davies 4
1 Norwegian College of Fishery Science, UiT The Arctic University of Norway,
Tromsø, Norway
2 Nireus Aquaculture, Chalkida, Greece
3 Department of Fisheries, Gorgan University of Agricultural Science and Natural
Resources, Gorgan, Iran
4 School of Biological Sciences, Plymouth University, UK
ABSTRACT
Worldwide interest in prebiotics has increased in endothermic animals as well as in fish. Var-
ious sectors of the aquaculture industry would benefit if cultured organisms were conferred
with improved growth performance, feed efficiency, disease resistance, modulation of the gut
microbiota and enhanced immune responses. According to recent reviews, the potential ben-
efits to health and performance in various endothermic animals are documented in numerous
studies while the use of prebiotics in aquaculture has been less investigated. However, the stud-
ies carried out on prebiotics in fish and shellfish have investigated the following parameters:
effect on growth performance, feed conversion, gut microbiota, gut morphology, cell damage
in the gut, resistance against pathogenic bacteria and innate immune parameters. This review
discusses the results from studies published post 2009-2010. Readers with an interest in probi-
otic studies published prior to 2009-2010 are referred to review papers previously published.
If the use of prebiotics leads to health responses becoming more clearly manifested in fish and
shellfish, then prebiotics might have the potential to increase the efficiency and sustainability
of aquaculture production. However, gaps of knowledge exist and in order to fully elucidate
the beneficial effects of adding prebiotics to fish diets the topic merits further investigations.
14.1 INTRODUCTION
To the authors' knowledge the first study on prebiotics in aquaculture was reported by Hanley
et al . (1995). Since then numerous papers have been published and the most common prebi-
otics used in fish are inulin, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), short-chain fructooligosaccharides
(scFOS), oligofructose, mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), trans -galactooligosaccharides (TOS),
 
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