Recent studies on probiotics as beneficial mediator in aquaculture: a review

Abstract Background The diseases in fish and other economic aquatic species is a great concern, and every year it causes a huge loss in aquaculture sectors. The use of probiotics might be a good option to reduce the disease risk and to enhance the productivity. Methods We have gathered information from various important research and review articles related to fish diseases, probiotics, and gut microbial community. We have tried our level best to represent the up-to-date information in a concise manner. Results In this present review, we have demonstrated the various beneficial aspects of probiotics in aquaculture sectors. Probiotics are considered as novel functional agents that have potential implications in influencing the gut microbiota of any aquatic organism. Researchers have already documented that probiotics play a wide spectrum functions (such as decrease diseases and stress, enhance immunity, modulate gut microbiota, helps in nutrition, improve water quality, etc.) in host body. Furthermore, the beneficial effects of probiotics contribute to increase feed value and growth of the animal, and improve spawning and hatching rate in aquaculture system. Here, we have discussed each and every functions of probiotics and tried to correlate with the previous knowledge. Conclusion The reports regarding the efficacy of probiotics and its detailed mechanism of action are scarce. Till date, several probiotics have been reported; however, their commercial use has not been implicated. Most of the studies are based on laboratory environment and thus the potentiality may vary when these probiotics will be used in natural environments (pond and lakes).