Nano-Systems for Micro-Nutrient Delivery in Aquaculture: A Critical Analysis - Abstract
There is growing interest in engineered nanoparticle (NP) based micronutrient delivery systems in aquaculture. However, a comprehensive understanding of the interactions of NPs with its surroundings is required in order to apply these NPs as micronutrient carrier to aquatic animals. A monodisperse and stable NP selection is the first important step to reduce any uncertainty in such delivery systems. Then the NPs should survive during the administration process and get equally distributed among target animals in an aquaculture tank. In case of delivery via feed, the ill-defined raw materials (like fish meal, soybean meal, rapeseed meal, groundnut meal, fish oil, soybean oil etc.) and harsh processing conditions can be a great source of error. Also in the animal body, the NPs should dislodge from the food and survive the gut environment until they get absorbed in the epithelial tissue. Finally, they should be circulated to the target tissues by blood in physiologically significant amount. If the NPs are administered through water, there should be
minimal loss of NP due to the myriad of reactions possible in the water column. Rigorous analysis of the fate of NPs in the said delivery steps becomes even more important for some cases (like SeNP) where the window of the effective and toxic dose is very narrow for aquatic animals. Hence, this communication critically examined the mentioned issues and proposed a chemical reactor model to simplify the complex sequence of delivery process of nano-sized micronutrients.