"Cyclodextrin diets for enhancing fish health"

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world and accounts forapproximately 50% of the seafood consumed throughout the world. However, the demand for farmraisedfish has pushed fish production densities to new limits and this has increased the incidenceand spread of disease. There have been very few drugs developed for treating and preventingdiseases in fish. We have discovered that a family of compounds called cyclodextrins (cyclicoligosaccharides) are extremely potent stimulators of the fish innate immune system and canprotect against lethal lipopolysaccharide challenge. We propose to use these compound asimmunomodulators to treat aquacultured fish in the diet to enhance their defense against pathogens.These compounds are stable and water-soluble and are classified by the FDA to be "GenerallyRecognized As Safe" as food additives. However, before developing this compound further, weneed to demonstrate that cyclodextrins can protect fish against a live pathogen challenge. Thus, theprimary objective of this proposal is to treat rainbow trout with a cyclodextrin-containing diet andthen challenge with a bacterial (Vibrio anguillarum) pathogen and determine the level ofprotection. Diamond V, a manufacturer of fermented products for a variety of purposes includingaquaculture, is developing a novel in-feed technology containing specific metabolites producedthrough a natural microbial fermentation processes. The research in the current proposal will helpDiamond V produce a novel product for enhancing fish health that contains CycloDextrins, whichare naturally occurring bacterial fermentation products.