Mucosal Health in Aquaculture

Benjamin H. Beck, Eric Peatman

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780124171930
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Animal Husbandry
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Mucosal Health in Aquaculture is an essential reference on mucosal health for the diverse aquaculture community. Rich in explanatory figures and schematics, the bookincludes important concepts such as structural and cellular composition of mucosal surfaces in fish and shellfish, known functional roles of molecular and cellular actors during pathogen invasion, impacts of nutrition on the mucosal barriers, impacts of chemical treatments on mucosal surfaces, mucosal vaccines and vaccination strategies, and more.

The health of cultured aquaculture species is critical in establishing the sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry worldwide, and mucosal health is of particular interest to those working in aquaculturebecause mucosal surfaces (skin, gill, intestine, reproductive tissues) constitute the first line of defense against pathogen invasion. Mucosal Health in Aquaculture captures the latest research on mucosal barriers in aquaculture species and their impacts on nutrition and immunity to ensure sustainable aquaculture development.

• Includes research case studies toexhibit the importance ofvarious integrated approaches to mucosal health
• Examinesthe latest scientific methods and technologies to maximize efficiencies for healthy fish production for farming
• Brings together the latest knowledge and researchon mucosal barriers and mechanisms from world-wide experts in mucosal health
• Utilizes detailed diagrams and figures to enhance comprehension

1

Why mucosal health?

Eric Peatman^*

Benjamin H. Beck^†
*    School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Alabama, USA
^†    Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center, Stuttgart, Arkansas, USA

Abstract

This chapter introduces the text and the impact of mucosal health in aquaculture.

Keywords

mucosal health

fish

shellfish

aquaculture

environment

global

Chapter Outline

1.1 Why mucosal health? 1

1.1. Why mucosal health?

Aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of agriculture and is expected to maintain its rapid growth in coming decades in the face of rising world populations and declining wildcatch fisheries. Roughly half of all seafood for public consumption is now farmed. An ever-growing number of fish and shellfish species is either being grown commercially or being evaluated for aquaculture potential. The domestication of key species for aquaculture is still in its infancy, however, when compared with more established livestock industries such as poultry or cattle. Market demands for higher volumes of cultured product at lower prices have often come into conflict with the ability of near-wild species to cope with intensive aquaculture environments. Resulting disease outbreaks (whether virus, parasite, or bacteria) inflict significant economic, public perception, and marketing damage to the growing industry. Prioritizing the broad-based health of cultured species is critical in avoiding these boom/bust cycles and establishing the sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry worldwide.

Rather than recapitulating the more familiar textbook and cataloging fish pathogens and their treatments, here we choose to focus on the health and immunity of the cultured organism. Ultimately, the goal of the aquaculture industry is to optimize environmental parameters, dietary regimens, and host genetics such that disease events are rare. These factors intersect in the mucosal surfaces of cultured aquatic organisms. The mucosal surfaces (skin, gill, and intestine) constitute the first line of defense against pathogen invasion while simultaneously carrying out a diverse array of other critical physiological processes, including nutrient absorption, osmoregulation, and waste excretion. Aquaculture species depend more heavily on mucosal barriers than their terrestrial agricultural counterparts as they are continuously interacting with the aquatic microbiota. Unlike classical immune centers, such as the spleen and kidney, the accessibility of mucosal surfaces through immersion/dip treatments or dietary changes allows tailored chemical and nutritional strategies to maximize mucosal and, therefore, organismal health. Indeed, many areas of intense research in aquaculture over the last decade have hinged upon a better understanding of mucosal health. Nutritionists are hard at work studying the impacts of antinutritional factors in plant-based fish diets on gut mucosa and how to circumvent them. Feed companies are competing to produce superior immunostimulants, prebiotics, and probiotics that maximize mucosal health and decrease disease prevalence. Microbiologists and immunologists are studying mechanisms of pathogen adherence and entry through mucosal surfaces and designing attenuated mucosal vaccines to stimulate robust mucosal protection. This text cuts across all of these areas in order to capture and bring together our latest understandings of mucosal barriers in aquaculture species and their impacts on nutrition and immunity. Beginning with an in-depth overview of mucosal immunity in fish (Chapter 2, Castro and Tafalla), the book synthesizes our current understanding of the fish structure and function (Chapter 3, Peterson), fish skin (Chapter 4, Esteban and Cerezuela), gill (Chapter 5, Koppang, Kvellestad, and Fischer), and gut/intestinal (Chapter 6, Salinas and Parra) barriers, before looking at the impacts of the environment (Chapter 7, Sundh and Sundell), nutrition (Chapter 8, Trushenski), prebiotics and probiotics (Chapter 9, Caipang and Lazado), and the microbial community (Chapter 10, Merrifield and Rodiles) on these same surfaces. Chapter 11 (Soto, Griffin, and Tobar) considers the progress and potential of new vaccines seeking to protect aquacultured organisms at these barriers. Chapter 12 (Allam and Espinosa) provides a detailed investigation into mucosal health in shellfish.

Studies on immunity in aquacultured species, as a whole, have either been comparative in nature, seeking to catalog the presence or absence of components of immunity expected based on knowledge of mammalian immunology, or oriented around artificial disease challenges, with little or no examination of underlying mechanisms. However, an array of new cellular and molecular tools that has become available over the last several years is rapidly changing this. To close out the book, Chapter 13 (Beck and Peatman) focuses on new, promising approaches to understanding the mucosal interactome, a term used to describe the intricate co-regulation of host immunity, environmental signaling, pathogen dynamics, and the broader microbial community at mucosal surfaces.

The future looks bright for global aquaculture, with a growing middle class and an array of new, more sustainable production models and diets that promise to lower costs and reduce waste output. The key to continued success, however, rests in maintaining the health of cultured organisms season after season. Understanding how culture practices, system specifications, and nutrition can impact mucosal health and enhance or decrease disease prevalence puts control in the hands of producers and brings a needed predictability to a growing industry. It is our hope that this book serves as an important step in that direction.

2

Overview of fish immunity

Rosario Castro

Carolina Tafalla Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide readers with a general overview of the fish immune system, including commonalities and particularities in comparison with higher vertebrate systems. Throughout this chapter, we will review the current knowledge of the immune functionality of fish organs, tissues, structures, cells, molecules, and mechanisms, mainly focusing on current knowledge of the cultivable teleost species on which most of the immunological research has focused in recent years. A comparison with mammalian systems will also be addressed, especially in cases where teleost immunity seems to challenge mammalian paradigms.

Keywords

immunity

teleost

innate

adaptive

Chapter Outline

2.1 Introduction 4

2.2 Organs, tissues, and ge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1: Why mucosal health?
• 2: Overview of fish immunity
• 3: Overview of mucosal structure and function in teleost fishes
• 4: Fish mucosal immunity: skin
• 5: Fish mucosal immunity: gill
• 6: Fish mucosal immunity: intestine
• 7: Environmental impacts on fish mucosa
• 8: Nutritional impacts on fish mucosa: dietary considerations
• 9: Nutritional impacts on fish mucosa: immunostimulants, pre- and probiotics
• 10: The fish microbiome and its interactions with mucosal tissues
• 11: Mucosal vaccines
• 12: Mucosal immunity in mollusks
• 13: New frontiers in mucosal health in aquaculture
• Subject Index