Samad Rahimnejad

Hongyu Liu

Qun Zhao

Fish meal constitutes a relatively high proportion of aquaculture feed nowadays, while too much reliance on this kind of classic protein source brings high costs and will restrain the development of other available energy-providing ingredients. Lipids and carbohydrates are widely acknowledged as great alternatives to fishmeal, for their friendly prices and good ability to provide consumable energy. To counteract the negative effects of excess dietary lipids and carbohydrates, specific additives can be introduced into aquatic feed for taking advantage of their benefits for health and immunity. Green functional additives can be a better alternative to antibiotics and have been commonly used in aquatic animal feeds. How to improve the utilization of feed resources and ensure feed safety is the focus of research in aquatic animal nutrition. In order to improve feed safety and aquatic product quality and safety, the development and application of green, non-polluting functional additives is particularly important. However, research on functional additives is still at an early stage and their deeper mechanisms of influence on aquatic animals need to be further explored. Feed quality and composition is a key factor in determining fish health. It has been shown that fish growth, serum immunity, gut development, flora structure, immune response, and signal transduction are all closely related to feed quality. Fish consuming low fishmeal feeds often exhibit reduced growth and disease resistance, processes that require corresponding changes in metabolic systems and immune response functions. This can be mitigated by supplementing feed with functional additives. Although a number of functional additives have been shown to have a positive impact on aquatic animal growth, research into the specific mechanisms and targets that regulate the physiological state and immune response system of aquatic animals is still at the exploratory stage. Currently, functional additives have been shown to interact with the intestinal flora. At the same time, during the digestion of functional additives in the aquatic animal intestine, their key components can also cause a series of metabolic processes and immune response changes in aquatic animals. Therefore, the specific processes of absorption and metabolism of functional additives, as well as the mechanisms affecting aquatic animals, need to be studied. Currently, more comprehensive and advanced experimental tools and methods, including cell signaling, correlation analysis, multi-omics, metabolic mechanisms, and immune response analysis, are needed to enrich and elucidate the feasibility and prospects of the application of green functional additives in aquafeeds. The purpose of this Research Topic is to evaluate the influence of such functional feed additives on growth, nutritional, and immunity parameters in marine aquatic animals especially under the condition of low fish meal. We aim to study the effect of functional feed additives on the nutritional immunity of marine aquatic animals especially under the condition of low fish meal. Related studies in the format of Original Research, Reviews, and Mini-Reviews are welcomed. • Development and application of new functional aquatic additives. • Immunological, metabolic, and intestinal health research affected by low fishmeal feeds and functional feed additives. • Establishing linkages between target organs (e.g. hepatic-intestinal axis, brain-intestinal axis) based on low fishmeal feeds and functional feed additives. • Immunological regulation of aquatic animals by functional feed additives. • In vitro and in vivo experiments to validate the mechanisms of action and immune regulation of functional additives

Hongyu Liu

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