| Summary: | Aquaculture is an important economic activity on many countries. However face several challenges mainly associated to feed and diseases development. Among the strategies applied to avoid or prevent those problems are the use of chitin and its derivate. Chitin consists of β-1-4-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues and is estimated as the second most important polysaccharide found in the nature. The main sources exploited are crustaceans. Chitin and chitosan are considerably versatile and promising biomaterials. The effect of chitin on several cultivated organism it was reported. Detecting that the inclusion of chitin in feed farmed organism improves not only the growth and feed conversion also stimulated the immune system against virus and protozoea by increasing the serum lysozyme; moreover the costs of production decrease. However, oversupplies of chitin in some fish species induce excessive deposition of fat liver, heart and carcass. Whereas chitosan, the deacetylated chitin derivate, considering more useful and interesting bioactive polymer, it was evaluated as encapsulated bioactive compounds during the culture of some farmed organisms. Chitosan encapsulated vitamin C, improve its liberation without lost its bioavailability. Although, chitosan can encapsulate antigen against white spot syndrome virus and vaccines, its efficacy depends of the virus. Moreover, chitosan posses properties, that may be useful to improve aquaculture wastewater quality. There are still many questions about the chitin and chitosan application in aquaculture, as chitosan encapsulated stability, the right chitin concentration according with the cultured specie, among others.
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