ABSTRACT
The aquaculture industry has great potential to give response to animal protein demand. In order to be competitive, this industry must achieve adequate production of the domesticated species and avoid diseases that could hinder such cultures. This chapter outlines the uses of prebiotics, probiotics, and symbiotics in the field of aquaculture, providing detailed tables showing the studies using probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics with different fish species of commercial interest during recent years. The main methods of probiotic administration in aquaculture are oral administration and addition to the water. The use of probiotics in aquaculture is generally related either to the improvement of growth, due to their potential effect on nutrient digestibility, or to infection prevention, due to their antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activities. Many trajectories of research focus on the study of the beneficial effects of functional feeds for the prevention of infections and promotion of fish immune response at many levels.
