Potential uses of fungal polysaccharides as immunostimulants in fish and shrimp aquaculture: A review

Aquaculture industries would be benefit if the cultured organisms were conferring with proper growth, feed supplements and resistance to diseases. In intensive farming, there are various constrains, such as stresses and disease which results in weakened immune system have been observed. Diseases spread rapidly and threatening the aquaculture industry leads to severe economic loss. Antibiotics and vaccines have been used to control various diseases in aquaculture industries, however, these practices can increase the resistant of pathogens, thus novel strategies are need to control the pathogens. In order to overcome the limiting factors of intensive culture probiotics, prebiotics and symbiotic have been used as dietary supplements. Among these, prebiotics are non-digestible feed ingredients that benefit the host in several ways by stimulating the growth and immune responses and help them in defence mechanism against pathogenic microbes as well as abiotic stressors. In aquaculture practice, fungal polysaccharides are prebiotic substance which is widely accepted as a nutritional component for regulating growth and health condition. The current review summarizes and discusses the potential uses of fungal polysaccharides on growth performance, immune response and diseases resistance of various fish and shrimp species.