About this Research Topic
The environmental sustainability and the food vs feed concerns of using fish and other food crops for aquafeed necessitate continuous research on alternative ingredients to replace traditional sources of protein and lipid for sustainable growth of the sector without detrimental effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecology and exacerbating food security. Most studies on alternative aquafeed ingredients have focused on ascertaining the ability of the ingredient to match nutritional components like essential amino acids and fatty acids, which are the main advantages of traditional protein and lipid sources. However, some of the ingredients being tested are likely to have prophylactic effects due to their probiotic and prebiotic properties retained from their sources or developed due to methods of preparation such as fermentation. Therefore, non-nutritive values of ingredients from macro and microalgae, probiotics, prebiotics, insects, and processed byproducts can be beneficial to the quest of replacing traditional ingredients even if they don’t meet all the basal nutritive requirements. This special issue looks to encourage researchers to actively investigate the functional properties of the ingredients they work with in addition to their nutritive values so that knowledge of the full advantages of the ingredients can be available for application and further research.
This Research Topic looks to collate papers (research articles, reviews, and short communications) that report the ability of different novel ingredients to replace fully or partially, as well as synergize with fishmeal and fish oil to promote the growth performance of various aquaculture species through feeding trials. Researchers are encouraged to look beyond growth performance and determine the effect of the ingredients on resistance to stress and diseases, and investigate health indices related to blood, liver, head kidney, intestine, and other tissues of prophylactic importance. The potential benefits of intestinal microbiota modulation should also be considered, as well as molecular perspectives such as the effect on pro and anti-inflammation cytokines, heat shock proteins, tight junction proteins, as well as related signal transduction. Aside from feeding trials, manuscripts are welcome from laboratory studies on nutritive (protein, lipid, amino acid, fatty acid, etc.) and non-nutritive functional components (bioactive compounds and antimicrobial proteins).
Keywords: Aquafeed; Alternative Ingredients; Microalgae; Macroalgae; Probiotics; Prebiotics; Insect; Byproducts
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.