Antibiotic resistance in aquaculture has emerged as a global crisis, representing a serious threat to the health of aquatic animals, environment, and human. The extensive use of antibiotics in aquaculture has led to rapid development of resistant bacterial strains, resulting in environmental contamination and the dissemination of resistant genes. Understanding of the research trends, key contributors, and thematic evolution of this field is essential for guiding future studies and policy interventions. The study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on antibiotic resistance development in aquaculture, identifying key areas of research, leading contributors, emerging challenges, and alternative solutions. Data were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database covering the period from 2000 to 2025. A systematic search strategy was employed, utilizing terms including “antibiotic resistance” AND “bacteria,” AND “aquaculture”. Relevant publications were extracted from the WoS using these keywords. R-tool was then used to analyze the obtained metadata including keywords, citation patterns, and co-authored country. The analysis revealed a remarkable increase in publications over the past 25 years, with key contributions from China, India, and the USA. The most significant articles focused on the presence of multidrug resistant bacteria in the aquatic environments and, antibiotic-resistant genes, and horizontal gene transfer. Probiotics are the alternative solution to overcome the antibiotic resistance and enhance aquaculture sustainability. Future research should focus on the interdisciplinary collaboration, novel antimicrobial alternatives, and global monitoring approaches.

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.

Aquaculture is a key food production sector responsible for meeting the nutritional needs of a rapidly growing global population. However, the emergence of disease outbreaks has become a major challenge for the aquaculture industry, resulting in significant economic losses. The use of costly and toxic antibiotics for treatment has a negative impact on the aquatic environment. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in probiotics as a non-antibiotic approach to manage disease outbreaks and improve fish performance. The use of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) has shown remarkable benefits in aquaculture. In February 2025, a systematic search was conducted based on the Web of Science (WoS) database for the period 2015–2025 to identify relevant studies investigating the beneficial effects of SC in aquaculture. After searching on WoS, 466 documents were found and analyzed using R-bibliometric package for comprehensive analysis to identify research gap, trends, and distribution of global literature that focuses on SC in aquaculture. The most relevant and recent articles were reviewed, summarized and discussed. The yeast SC have shown a wide range of benefits, including improved growth performance, feed efficiency, enhanced diversity of the gut microbiome and immune response. The implementation of SC is becoming a recent trend and its efficacy in aquatic environments has been thoroughly investigated. This review aims to provide a valuable insight into SC as one of the most important aquaculture probiotics. It also emphasizes the need for further research to fully understand its benefits and the way it works.

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the probiotics Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) and Pediococcus acidilactici (PA), as well as the prebiotic yeast cell wall extract (Cyberlindnera jadinii and S. cerevisiae) (YP), on the growth parameters, intestinal histomorphology, liver and gills normality, and gut microbiome of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). These feed supplements were subjected to a 60-day experimental period, during which 120 fish (26.4 ± 5.2 g) were distributed into four groups, with each group comprising 30 fish. The feed supplements were administered at a rate of 1 g/kg of body weight. Before the trial, the fish were acclimatized for two weeks, then injected with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags. The results showed that none of the feed supplements exhibited a significant effect (p > 0.05) on growth indices. In contrast, the villi length, villi width, muscular thickness, and crypt depth in the anterior, mid, and posterior intestine of the SC group exhibited significant (p < 0.05) improvements compared to the other groups. No alteration or abnormal growth were noticed in the gills and livers. The most dominant microbe genera in all groups, with abundances greater than 60% of the total, were Cetobacterium and Aeromonas. However, Polynucleobacter, Nordella, Mycoplasma, Romboutsia, and Staphylococcus species were present at lower abundances. The presence of Actinobacteria has been observed only in the intestine of fish that have been fed a diet supplemented with PA. It can be concluded that the tested probiotics and the yeast cell wall prebiotic have the potential to produce a remarkable improvement in intestinal morphology and a considerable change in the gut microbiome without notable effect on growth, livers, or gills of common carp.

Aquaculture production has significantly increased over the previous few decades. However, antibiotics have been implemented regularly and extensively to overcome outbreaks of pathogens in aquaculture to cover the human needs for animal protein, leading to the appearance of resistant strains that may cause serious damages in the environment and also human health. In the last few years, the implementation of probiotics as an alternative technique to antibiotics use in fish production has achieved promising results in aquaculture due to their beneficial impact on fish health and growth performance. Among different types of probiotics, the Pediococcus spp. bacteria stand out as a promising probiotic for their beneficial impact to aquaculture. Thus, the current study has been conducted to give an overview about the interactions between Pediococcus spp. and aquaculture. In addition, this review highlights the role of Pediococcus spp in promoting growth performance, improving feed conversion ratios and the intestinal architecture, enhancing the immune response and inhibiting fish pathogens, thereby preventing or at least reducing the use of antibiotics. Practical use of Pediococcus spp. probiotic in aquaculture as feed additives through selected case studies is also considered.

Background/Objectives: Baobab (Adansonia digitate L.) is an underutilized species and edible parts (fruits, leaves and seeds) contribute to food security and human health in tropical areas. Although the fruits have attracted greater research interest and have recently been approved for consumption in EU countries, the leaves are traditionally consumed but they have yet to be studied from an interventional perspective. The aim of this study was to propose a protocol for a dietary intervention using baobab leaves (BLs) to achieve the recommended reference values for proteins and minerals (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Mn) for different target groups of the Sudanese population. Methods: Dry matter, crude fat, protein and ash content, mineral content (Na, Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Mn), total phenolic, and flavonoid compounds were determined in BLs from six different areas. To assess the health and nutrition status in Sudan, time-series data (2013–2023) from the DataBank Health Nutrition and Population Statistics database were used. The reference values for nutrients recommended by the European Food Safety Authority were used to estimate the amount of baobab leaf intake (BLI, g/day). Results: For each nutrient, the study area with the lowest amount of BLs to be consumed is recommended. Leaves from the area of El Gari (BN3) 18.312 g/day and 30.712 g/day are recommended for K and Ca, which are particularly beneficial for children aged 1–3 years and lactating women. Leaves from Kor Tagat (KR1) are suitable for sodium intake, requiring approximately 13–23 g/day across all age groups. Leaves from Kazgil (KR2) (46–81 g/day), (35–66 g/day), (0.48–0.68 g/day), and (4–6 g/day) are optimal for fulfilling the daily requirements of magnesium, iron, manganese, and protein in this order. Conclusions: The systematic inclusion of BLs in the diet can positively support the nutritional status of various demographics. Moreover, the findings of this study demonstrated the foundation for public health and nutritional policy-makers on how they will tackle malnutrition and food insecurity worldwide by incorporating naturally available diets and nutritious alternatives. Recommendation: Further research should focus on assessing the nutritional composition factors that could affect the absorption of nutrients such as phytates and oxalates and investigating the in vitro bioavailability of the elements.