Abstract
As the aquaculture sector significantly expanded worldwide in the past decades, the concept of sustainable aquaculture has developed with the challenge of not only maximizing benefits but also minimizing the negative impacts on the environment assuring, at the same time, food security. In this framework, monitoring and improving the microbiological water quality and animal health are a central topic. In the present study, we evaluated the seawater microbiological quality in a mariculture system located in a Mediterranean coastal area (Northern Ionian Sea, Italy). We furnished, for the first time, a microbial inventory based on conventional culture-based methods, integrated with the 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding approach for vibrios identification and diversity analyses, and further implemented with microbial metabolic profiling data obtained from the Biolog EcoPlate system. Microbiological pollution indicators, vibrios diversity, and microbial metabolism were determined in two different times of the year (July and December). All microbial parameters measured in July were markedly increased compared to those measured in December. The presence of potentially pathogenic vibrios is discussed concerning the risk of fish disease and human infections. Thus, the microbial inventory here proposed might represent a new multiparametric approach for the suitable surveillance of the microbial quality in a mariculture system. Consequently, it could be useful for ensuring the safety of both the reared species and the consumers in the light of sustainable, eco-friendly aquaculture management.
Highlights
The human population is increasing by 83 million each year, as revealed in a FAO report, leading to a daunting challenge of feeding a growing global population, which is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030 [1]
We collectively examined for the first time, a set of microbiological parameters simultaneously measured in a mariculture fish farm located in the Mediterranean Sea, producing the European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758) and sea bream Sparus aurata (Linnaeus, 1758)
The mean concentration of culturable bacteria at 22° C in the seawater samples collected in December was 4.8 ± 0.4 × 103 colony-forming unit (CFU)/mL
Summary
The human population is increasing by 83 million each year, as revealed in a FAO report, leading to a daunting challenge of feeding a growing global population, which is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030 [1]. This growing global population, needs a steady supply of high-quality protein. To meet this demand for food, aquaculture production, i.e., the farming of aquatic organisms (e.g., fish, mollusks, and crustaceans) and seaweeds must be increased. In the marine environment, fish farming causes eutrophication processes since many metabolic byproducts, food residuals, fecal matter, and residues of prophylactic and therapeutic inputs are discharged without treatment
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