ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges facing humankind is the production of enough food to feed the world’s growing population while ensuring its high nutritional quality, high security standards and an environmentally sustainable production system. Thus, there is a need to improve aquaculture techniques such as fish feeding and try to assess the benefits of the presence of bioactive compounds. Feed fish supply represents about 50% of production costs in intensive aquaculture, the most expensive component being the protein source. The scientific community has demonstrated its commitment to the discovery and inclusion of new functional ingredients and the development of novel aquaculture fish feed formulations. Among the immunostimulants currently tested in aquaculture, seaweeds have proved to be important ingredients as they promote growth, stimulate the appetite, enhance tonicity, exhibit immunostimulant properties, and also exhibit anti-pathogen properties. Extraction of components present in seaweeds, such as polysaccharides, polyphenols, pigments, vitamins, and other compounds, has been shown to be a promising pathway.
