Dietary Vitamin A Impacts on Aquaculture Health and Growth

Vitamin A is a fat‐soluble micronutrient that plays a central role in fish and crustacean development, immune competence, antioxidant defence and skeletal formation. Adequate dietary provision of vitamin A supports mucosal integrity, enhances pathogen resistance and regulates cellular differentiation in tissues ranging from muscle to bone. In intensive aquaculture systems, suboptimal or excessive vitamin A can impair growth performance, distort feed efficiency and provoke histological anomalies. Optimal inclusion levels thus require fine tuning for each species, life stage and feed formulation, particularly when plant‐based ingredients or contaminants influence retinoid bioavailability.

Research has elucidated how vitamin A modulates antioxidant enzymes, inflammatory mediators and gene networks that underlie growth regulation. It also interacts with other micronutrients, notably vitamins C and E, to reinforce oxidative‐stress resilience. Emerging evidence highlights species‐specific thresholds beyond which retinoid oversupply induces skeletal malformations or hepatic lipid dysregulation. Such findings underscore the necessity for precision nutrition in aquaculture feeds and for continuous monitoring of vitamin A stability during feed processing and storage.

Global demand for aquaculture products has driven innovation in feed technology, including novel delivery systems for vitamin A and rapid assays for retinoid content. Advances in molecular endocrinology now allow dietary regimens to be tailored according to expression of retinoid receptors and antioxidant pathways. Taken together, this body of work informs guidelines for balanced feed formulations that optimise health, growth and product quality in diverse aquaculture species.

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Dietary Vitamin A Impacts on Aquaculture Health and Growth publication trend

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Technical terms

Retinoid: metabolic derivatives of vitamin A involved in vision, cellular differentiation and gene regulation.

Feed conversion ratio (FCR): the mass of feed required to produce one unit of body weight gain.

Specific growth rate (SGR): the daily percentage increase in body weight, used to assess growth performance.

Antioxidant capacity: the ability of tissues to neutralise reactive oxygen species and prevent oxidative damage.

References

1. High Levels of Vitamin A in Plant‐Based Diets for Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) Juveniles, Effects on Growth, Skeletal Anomalies, Bone Molecular Markers, and Histological Morphology. Aquaculture Nutrition (2023).
2. Dietary Vitamin A Improved the Flesh Quality of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in Relation to the Enhanced Antioxidant Capacity through Nrf2/Keap 1a Signaling Pathway. Antioxidants (2022).
3. Vitamin A in Fish Well-Being: Integrating Immune Strength, Antioxidant Capacity and Growth. Fishes (2024).