Utility of b-glucan as an Immunomodulator for Infectious Disease Prophylaxis in Fish Aquaculture
The intensive rearing of fish in recirculating systems or in ponds gives growers the potential to produce large numbers of fish that are uniform in size and quality. However, the physiological stress on fish from common aquacultural practices (e.g., crowding, handling, grading, transporting) can suppress the immune system effectiveness in fighting microbial infections. Recent developments indicate that immunostimulator agents can help control or prevent such infections. For example, b-glucans are a group of chemical compounds that offers potential usefulness to farm-reared striped bass and hybrids. A polymer of glucose that serves as a stimulant to the immune system, b-glucans have shown few side effects in laboratory experiments. How effective are they in enhancing disease resistance in real-world aquaculture? Robert Anderson will try to answer this question. His overall goal is to quantify the immunostimulation in striped bass that have been given b-glucans when presented with aquaculture-related stressors.
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Robert S. Anderson
UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
University System of Maryland
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