article · Aquaculture Reports
Farmed fish and shellfish encounter multiple environmental and operational stressors during production, including low oxygen, fluctuating salinity and pH, handling injuries, and water toxicity. These conditions undermine animal welfare, growth, and resistance to disease. Certain microalgae and the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis provide valuable nutrients, including essential vitamins, minerals, and bioactive phytochemicals with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-supporting qualities. Controlled field trials demonstrate that incorporating these organisms into aquafeeds enhances growth rates, physiological performance, and disease resilience across finfish and shrimp species. Specifically, eight microorganisms, including Chlorella vulgaris, Haematococcus pluvialis, and Dunaliella salina, show clear capacity to relieve stress-induced damage. Using these natural supplements presents a promising strategy to protect aquatic livestock and support consistent aquaculture production under challenging conditions.
Aquaculture is vital for global food security, but environmental fluctuations and handling expose fish and shrimp to frequent stress, leading to disease and stock losses. Identifying safe, inexpensive feed supplements derived from microalgae helps maintain animal welfare and farm productivity. This biological approach supports resilience and yield in commercial aquaculture without relying on harmful or costly interventions.
Microalgal biomass can be formulated into functional aquafeeds for commercial finfish and shrimp producers. The primary end users are feed manufacturers and aquaculture enterprises aiming to reduce stress-related mortality and improve animal growth. Because the findings rely on field-controlled trials across identified species such as Arthrospira platensis and Chlorella vulgaris, the concept is applied and tested, representing a near-term development opportunity for commercial feed formulation.
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Farmed fish and shrimp are continuously challenged by multiple stressors during their life stages, such as hypoxia, pH fluctuations, different salinities, high nitrite, un-ionized ammonia, injury during handling, inadequate nutrition, or food shortage, which can eventually adversely impact their health, welfare, and growth rates. Besides, these stressors can weaken production and decrease their resistance to diseases. Scientists and researchers have been making concerted efforts to find new, safe, and inexpensive supplements to mitigate the negative influences of stressors and thereby enhance the productivity of farmed aquatic animals. Some microalgae are microscopic unicellular organisms that were found to be promising feed supplements due to their richness in important nutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Moreover, some microalgae contain several bioactive phytochemicals that exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory properties. Several field-controlled studies provided evidence that using microalgae as feed supplements led to improved growth, physiological functions, immunity, antioxidant capacity, and disease resistance in farmed finfish and shellfish species. This review article emphasizes the beneficial role of the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis and seven microalgal species, including Chlorella vulgaris, Parietochloris incisa, Dunaliella salina, Aurantiochytrium sp., Haematococcus pluvialis, Tetraselmis sp., and Nannochloropsis oculata in mitigating stress effects in farmed finfish and shellfish species. The conclusions of this article throw light on the potential benefits of using microorganisms in aquaculture.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101135
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