This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Fish that are cultivated in pools or ponds are an increasingly important source of food around the world. Unfortunately, disease outbreaks can cause substantial losses in aquaculture.
Fish farmers use vaccines to prevent disease outbreaks just like regular farmers, but vaccinating a fish is a lot harder than vaccinating a cow. The most effective way to vaccinate fish today uses needles, but there are several downsides to this process, both for the fish and the farmers. Now a team of researchers at MIT and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has developed a potentially better way to deliver vaccines. The approach uses water-resistant, food-grade microneedles that can lightly penetrate and remain attached to fish skin before decomposing. In a new paper published in ACS Nano, the researchers described their system and showed it could be used to deliver a range of cargos, such as bacterial vaccines.
"To feed the world we need more fish, which are a major source of protein and nutrition," says Benedetto Marelli, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "Aquaculture is a very effective way of producing a large amount of fish. Our approach could give farmers a more precise tool to maintain fish health.
Farmers are really concerned about the health care of these fish, so providing them with better tools is really important." Joining Marelli on the paper are Meng Li, an MIT postdoc and first author on the paper; Jad Raad MEng '24; Yunteng Cao Ph.D. '22, a postdoc at Yale University; Yue Hu, a former MIT postdoc; Colleen Wolfe MEng '23; Doyoon Kim, a former MIT postdoc; Bradley Frank, a current MIT postdoc; and Gregory Wiens, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture. Aquaculture holds enormous potential to address food insecurity, reduce energy consumption, and decarbonize global food systems.
In 2021, for the first time, farmed aquatic animals exceeded wild-caught aquatic animals in global food production by weight. "The world's population is going to grow by almost 2 billion people by 2050," Marelli says. "Fish provide access to essential nutrition.
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