Enteromyxosis is an important parasitic disease encountered in the farming of Gilthead seabream in the Mediterranean region. This disease is caused by Enteromyxum leei, a microscopic myxozoa that infects the intestinal tract, causing serious economic impacts due to arrested growth and inability to reach commercial size of the gilthead sea bream raised in sea cages.
A collaborative study, recently published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (vol. 120: 111-120, 2020), between Adisseo and The Fish Pathology group at the Institute of Aquaculture Torre de la Sal (IATS, Spain) aimed at validating the efficacy of the feed additive Sanacore® GM to mitigate the effect of enteromyxosis in gilthead sea bream under controlled conditions. IATS is a leading research group in fish parasite research and has developed standardized E. leei infection protocols in gilthead seabream as one of their primary research lines.
The peer reviewed study proved that the dietary inclusion of Sanacore® GM refrained most of the diseases signs and specifically mitigated the reduction in growth caused by the infection. Quantitative parasitological data on prevalence, intensity, and abundance, as well as histopathological analysis on infection extension confirmed the effect of additive supplementation on reducing the infection rate and its severity.
This study confirmed field observations on the importance of an adequate feed additive program in a preventive strategy against enteromyxosis.