Prebiotic Applications in Shellfish - Aquaculture Nutrition: Gut Health, Probiotics and Prebiotics - page 401

15 Prebiotic Applications in Shellfish

Carly Daniels 1 and Seyed Hossein Hoseinifar 2
1 The National Lobster Hatchery, Padstow, Cornwall, UK
2 Department of Fisheries, Gorgan University of Agricultural Science and Natural
Resources, Gorgan, Iran

ABSTRACT

The current research demonstrates great potential for the dietary application of prebiotics
in the culture of larval, post larval and juvenile stages of shrimps and prawns (Penaeidae),
freshwater crayfish (Astacidae and Parastacidae) and lobsters (Nephropidae and Palinuridae).
Specific prebiotics used in such applications include mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), fruc-
tooligosaccharides (FOS), isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO), xylooligosaccharides (XOS) and
inulin. Prebiotic applications have been demonstrated to increase growth and survival during
culture, improve feed conversion, enhance development, elevate survival and improve immune
status and/or stress tolerance. These benefits are mediated by modulated gastrointestinal (GI)
microbiology and enhanced physical GI structures, which may account for improved feed
conversion and consequently growth of the host species. This review thus demonstrates that
by making positive changes in GI structure and bacterial community composition combined
with influencing immune status, culture success can be enhanced through dietary prebiotic
supplementation. However, it is clear that prebiotic efficiency is dependent on a number of
independent and interacting factors specific to the culture conditions and host species; further
research is required to elucidate these factors in order to improve prebiotic applications.

15.1 INTRODUCTION

Growing consumer awareness of the issues of sustainability has resulted in diverse efforts to
improve the productivity of crustacean aquaculture. In 2008 a total of 142.3 million tonnes of
seafood entered the market, of which 52.5 million tonnes originated from aquaculture (FAO
2010). Despite the fact that crustacean aquaculture accounted for only 5 million tonnes of this,
crustacea have the second highest market value of all cultured seafood (FAO 2010). Therefore
improving shellfish culture is paramount to increasing aquacultural outputs, thus keeping up