Nutrition and health: leading to functional aquatic feeds

For the major farmed aquatic species, feeds that have been developed through continued research are technologically superior and are less likely to cause under nourishment, but the new dimension in farming of fish and shrimp is to maintain the health of the animal by feeding them with feeds based on sustainable ingredients and fortified with beneficial bioactive components. The feed industry and the farmer together have realised the importance of keeping the cultured animals in good health. Today, the basic mantra is 'feed right' and that 'good feed should not only deliver appreciable growth but also protect the animal from effects of stressors within the farm environment and diseases'. There are several reasons why preventive health management is important and amongst these are intensification of culture, expansion of international trade in live fish and the slow awareness on emerging diseases. Transparency in tackling disease situations is necessary in the field of aquaculture. Besides infectious diseases, there should be awareness on diseases attributed to feed ingredients or additives or even feed storage. The performance of aquafeeds should be judged not only based on growth responses but also on health status including immune responses and disease resistance. The antioxidant micronutrients, non nutritive immune enhancers and pre and probiotics to protect from pathogens are important in nutritional studies. The future will see application of nutrigenomics to identify biomarkers that signal imbalances and in turn facilitate corrective measures. Future developments in the aquafeed sector would be functional feeds for targeted nutrition.