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In animal science, dietary supplementation with probiotics offers several advantages, in terms of both environmental sustainability and production, and probiotic supplementation in aquatic animals is known to enhance stress tolerance, disease prevention, and growth, as has already been documented for several fish species. Among the various probiotics, the yeast-based ones have been stimulating a great deal of interest because of their ability to produce polyamines, which participate in numerous biological processes, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii (LSB), one of the most studied yeasts, has been used throughout the world for the prevention and treatment of a variety of gut inflammatory diseases. In our study, in order to obtain insights into the potential beneficial effects of this yeast as a probiotic, the dietary inclusion of an LSB strain (CNCM I-1079) was evaluated, at increasing concentrations (0, 100, and 300 mg kg⁻¹ of feed) for 90 days, on the welfare and health status of juvenile European sea bass, an important fish species in Mediterranean aquaculture. Our results indicate that LSB has an immunomodulatory action, and the observed lowering of pro-inflammatory gene transcripts in the gut suggests a possible anti-inflammatory action of this probiotic strain on the gut immune system of sea bass, with a possible enhancement of fish disease prevention. LSB also exerted a low, albeit insignificant, stimulating effect on the hematological and immunological parameters.

The present study has been aimed at evaluating the effects of the dietary inclusion of the live yeasts …