The Significance of Probiotics in Aquaculture: A Review of Research Trend and Latest Scientific Findings

Millions of people around the world rely on aquaculture as a major source of food. In the recent few years, probiotics have gained considerable attention as an alternative agent to antibiotics. They have been shown to play an important role in improving aquaculture species through different mechanisms, mainly disease management, improving their growth performance, and improving water quality. Consequently, this review aimed to identify the key areas of research in the global literature about the influence of probiotics on aquaculture based on the selected keywords "aquaculture" AND "probiotics" AND "growth performance" AND "disease resistance" (APGD). The meta-data of the published literature were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database on 23 December 2024, and then the co-authors, countries, and keywords were analyzed and visualized using VOSviewer (v. 1.6.20). The search found a remarkable number of documents, which included 175 APGD documents. The results of the bibliometric analysis of the global literature reveal a substantial increase in the publication of APGD documents from 2019 to 2024. Asia, particularly China (32.3% of documents), has emerged as a leader of APGD publications, followed by Iran (8.67%), India (8.01%), Malaysia (7.5%), and Spain (7.5%), respectively. Keyword analysis revealed the prevalence of disease resistance (length = 1793), probiotics (1348), aquaculture (1169), and growth performance (913) as the most impactful keywords based on the WoS database. This could indicate that most of the APGD documents were focused on disease resistance and probiotics relationships. In addition, an extensive review of the recent literature showed that probiotics have demonstrated a remarkable efficacy in improving the growth performance, feed utilization efficiency, disease prevention, and water quality management in various aquaculture species under different aquaculture systems when used as feed or water additives for 30-90 days. It can be concluded that Asia is the lead continent in aquaculture probiotics research, with a significant increase in APGD documents in the last 5 years. Probiotics played a major role in improving aquatic species. This research aims to provide valuable insight into the use of probiotics in aquaculture and highlights the need for further research to fully understand their benefits and mechanisms of action.