Scoping review reveals non-antibiotic alternatives focus heavily on prophylaxis in tilapia aquaculture, highlighting a need for translational field testing.
Key Points
To systematically evaluate the research landscape of non-antibiotic alternatives for managing bacterial diseases in tilapia aquaculture and identify key barriers to practical farm adoption.
Conducted a systematic scoping review across Google Scholar and four bibliographic databases.
Identified and analyzed 192 eligible peer-reviewed studies evaluating 288 non-antibiotic alternatives across 21 bacterial pathogens.
Ninety-five percent (95%) of eligible studies were conducted in low- and middle-income countries, predominantly targeting Aeromonas hydrophila and Streptococcus agalactiae.
Prophylactic strategies accounted for 82% of the 318 evaluated pathogen-alternative combinations, with research concentrated primarily on phytogenics and probiotics.
Most non-antibiotic alternatives showed significant efficacy in controlled laboratory settings, but translational field performance remains largely unverified without standard antibiotic comparators.