Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector. However, it faces significant challenges, including demand from a growing global population, which is estimated to reach 10.4 billion by the year 2100, disease outbreaks, environmental impacts, and the overuse of antibiotics. To address these issues, sustainable alternatives such as the use of microorganisms (probiotics, bacteriophages, and genetically modified microorganisms) have gained attention. This review examines the effects of these microorganisms on fish aquaculture, focusing on their potential to improve growth, health, and disease resistance while reducing environmental impacts. Probiotics, particularly lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, have been shown to enhance immune responses, digestive enzyme activity, and nutrient absorption in fish. Bacteriophages offer a promising alternative to antibiotics for controlling bacterial pathogens, with studies demonstrating their efficacy in reducing mortality rates in infected fish. Additionally, genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs) have been explored for their ability to produce beneficial compounds, such as enzymes and antimicrobial peptides, which can improve fish health and reduce the need for chemical treatments. Despite their potential, challenges such as regulatory hurdles, public acceptance, and environmental risks must be addressed. This review highlights the importance of further research to optimize the use of microorganisms in aquaculture and underscores their role in promoting sustainable practices. By integrating these biological tools, the aquaculture industry can move towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

Continued human population growth has resulted in increased demand for products, including those derived from aquaculture. The main challenge in aquaculture is producing more every year. In recent years, environmentally friendly supplements that provide the necessary pathways for optimal production have been emphasized. One of them is prebiotics, selectively utilized substrates by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit. Interest in applying prebiotics in global fish farming has increased in recent years as it has been shown to improve growth, boost the immune system, resist stress conditions, and cause the modulation of digestive enzymes. These effects reflect reduced production and disease costs. However, in Latin American countries such as Mexico, large-scale use of these food supplements is needed as a sustainable alternative to improve fish production. This paper gives a review of the current advances obtained with the application of prebiotics in commercially farmed fish worldwide, mentions the prebiotics to use in the aquaculture industry, and updates the status of studies about the used prebiotics in global commercial fish cultivated in Mexico, as well as freshwater and marine endemic fish in this country. Also, the limitations of prebiotics application in terms of their use and legislation are analyzed.

A method was developed to determine glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and glufosinate in soil. The worldwide use of this herbicide in agricultural activities, and its known negative effects on both the environment and health, have generated interest in the establishment of methodologies for its determination in several matrices at trace level. The development of analytical methods for the determination of glyphosate, AMPA, and glufosinate is challenging due to its present amphoteric properties, high solubility in water, low molecular weight, high affinity to the ions presents in the soil, and lack of chromophore groups in its structure, making its quantification difficult. The proposed method exhibits a linear range from 5.0 to 600 µg/kg with limits of detection of 1.37, 0.69 and 1.22 μg/kg, limits of quantification of 4.11, 2.08, and 3.66 μg/kg for glyphosate, AMPA, and glufosinate, respectively, and adequate repeatability and reproducibility (coefficients of variation <8.0% and recovery percentages between 93.56% and 99.10%). The matrix effect was calculated for each analyte, proving to be a good alternative for the determination of these contaminants. The described method was applied to 46 soil samples collected from crop fields in Hidalgo, Mexico, with concentrations varying from not detected to 4.358 μg/kg (for AMPA).

Water contamination with pesticides is one of the major pollution problems in northwestern Mexico, and this is due to the extensive use of pesticides in agriculture. In this research, water samples of ten sampling sites (fishing grounds, beaches, and both) were analyzed in the search for 28 pesticides (organochlorines, organophosphates, pyrethroids, carbamates, among other chemical classes), supplemented with a calculation of the resulting potential environmental risk. Pesticides were separated from the matrix by liquid-liquid extraction and quantified by gas chromatography coupled to electron micro-capture (organohalogenated) and pulsed flame photometric detectors (organophosphates). In addition, the ecotoxicological risk of pesticides in algae, invertebrates, and fish was assessed, based on seawater pesticide concentrations using the Risk Quotient (RQ) and Toxic Units (TU) approach. The results showed 18 pesticides identified in the analyzed samples, where cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos were identified with the maximum concentrations of 1.223 and 0.994 μg L^-1, respectively. In addition, these two pesticides have been associated with acute toxic effects on algae, invertebrates, and fish. It is important to pay particular attention to the search for long-term alternatives to the use of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin due to their high detection rates and the risks associated with their toxic properties. However, the adoption of alternative measures to synthetic pesticide control should be a priority, moving towards sustainable practices such as the use of biopesticides, crop rotation and polycultures.

El crecimiento de la población y producción agrícola, junto con el incremento de la industrialización a nivel mundial han deteriorado la calidad del agua en cuerpos de agua continentales. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue analizar las tendencias de parámetros de calidad del agua en un embalse tropical de la región Centro-Sur del Estado de Sinaloa, México, aplicando análisis estadístico no-paramétrico de Mann-Kendall. Se utilizaron datos obtenidos en cuatro puntos de muestreo en la presa El Salto, durante el período 2012-2020. Los resultados indican que la calidad del agua del embalse presenta tendencia significativa a mejorar durante el periodo analizado. El embalse mostró contaminación de materia orgánica, con concentración de coliformes-fecales superiores a los criterios ecológicos de calidad de agua como fuente de abastecimiento de agua potable y riego agrícola. Las concentraciones de nutrientes, clorofila-a y visibilidad de disco Secchi clasifican el agua entre eutrófica e hiper eutrófica.