Data from: Microencapsulated diets to improve bivalve shellfish aquaculture

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector and feeds over 3 billion people. Bivalve shellfish aquaculture makes up 25% of global aquaculture production and is worth annually US$19 billion, but continued growth is currently limited by suboptimal diets and limited tools for disease control. New advances in microencapsulation technology could provide an effective way to overcome these biological limitations. This study demonstrated that a new formulation of microencapsulated diet known as BioBullets could be ingested by a commercially farmed bivalve; the blue mussel Mytilus edulis. Microparticles could be captured by mussels with similar efficiency to natural foods. Microparticles too large for ingestion were rejected in psuedofaeces. Microparticles were successfully ingested and broken down by the gut. Further work is needed to assess the impact of BioBullets diets on bivalve growth. There is now an exciting opportunity to tailor the composition of microencapsulated diets for specific applications to improve production output and efficiency in the commercial bivalve shellfish industry.水产养殖（Aquaculture）是全球增长速度最快的食品产业，为超过30亿人口提供食物来源。双壳贝类（bivalve shellfish）水产养殖占全球水产养殖总产量的25%，年产值高达190亿美元，但当前其持续发展仍受限于日粮配方欠佳与病害防控工具匮乏两大瓶颈。微囊包埋技术（microencapsulation technology）的全新进展，或可提供攻克这些生物学限制的有效方案。本研究证实，一款名为BioBullets的新型微囊化日粮配方，可被商业化养殖的双壳贝类——紫贻贝（Mytilus edulis）成功摄食。该微粒的捕获效率与天然饵料不相上下，体积过大无法被摄食的微粒会以伪粪（pseudofaeces）形式被排出体外。微粒可被顺利摄食并在消化道内完成分解。后续仍需开展相关研究，以评估BioBullets日粮对双壳贝类生长的影响。目前，针对特定应用场景定制微囊化日粮成分，进而提升商业化双壳贝类养殖产业的产量与生产效率，已迎来极具前景的发展机遇。