| Summary: | A series of experiments has been conducted with hybrid striped bass in our laboratory to evaluate severaldifferent dietary additives that may influence immune response and disease resistance. These include glucans,levamisole, partially autolyzed brewers yeast, oligonucleotides and a yeast-based prebiotic mixture. Some ofthese supplements such as brewers yeast at 2% of diet significantly enhanced blood neutrophil oxidativeradical and extracellular superoxide anion production of head kidney macrophages as well as enhancedresistance to S. iniae. Additional experiments confirmed this observation in sub-adult hybrid striped bass andshowed some protection against M. marinum after an in situ infection. The prebiotic Grobiotics®-A, a mixtureof partially autolyzed brewers yeast, dairy ingredient components and dried fermentation products, provided asurprisingly enhanced growth and feed efficiency hybrid striped bass as well as immunostimulation andenhanced resistance to S. inae and M. marinum when included at 2% of diet. Dietary nucleotides also havebeen demonstrated to enhance neutrophil function and resistance of hybrid striped bass to S. iniae infection,although the mechanisms behind these phenomena are not well defined.Although the concept of functional feeds is novel to the aquaculture industry, it represents an emerging newparadigm to develop diets that extend beyond satisfying basic nutritional requirements of the culturedorganism. Our observation with hybrid striped bass have shown that research in this area is worthy to pursuefurther and may be very helpful for the industry.
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