Poster Presentation Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference 2025

Dietary supplements and biological performance in Haliotis species: A systematic evidence map protocol (#214)

Rebecca L Pedler 1 2 , Matthew Bansemer 1 3 , Ondi Crino 1 , James O Harris 1 , Malgorzata Lagisz 4 5
  1. College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University , Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
  2. Yumbah Aquaculture, Kent Town, South Australia, Australia
  3. Aquatic Animal Health, Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  4. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  5. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Background/Aims:
Haliotis sp. are an economically important aquaculture species, more commonly referred to as abalone. Abalone farms experience substantial mortality events when water temperatures increase above optima. Dietary supplements can improve abalone performance and survival, especially at elevated water temperatures. Despite a growing body of evidence supporting their efficacy, commercial uptake of dietary supplements remains limited, especially within Australia. This may be attributed to the lack of formal evidence synthesis on the topic. Here we present a systematic protocol for generating an evidence map on dietary supplements and their influence on the biological performance of abalone.

Method:
This systematic evidence map will capture accessible peer reviewed and grey literature. Searches will be conducted in English using the Scopus and Web of Science bibliographic databases along with web-based search engines and specialist repositories. The search string was developed using phrases frequently present within the title and keywords of 28 benchmark papers. Benchmark papers were selected to represent an appropriate scope of species, research groups, countries, dietary supplements and performance measures. The preliminary search returned 1780 and 1700 hits on WOS and Scopus databases respectively, with 100% sensitivity. Screening will be conducted in two stages (abstract and full text) and data extracted from eligible articles using an MS-Excel workbook. Descriptive data will be visualized by graphics and heat maps generated in R.

Results:
This protocol will be published on Open Science Framework for transparency and to facilitate community feedback. Further stakeholder engagement will be sought by presenting the protocol in poster format with an integrated suggestion box. This engagement is vital in ensuring that the protocol is relevant for industry and academic stakeholders.

Conclusion:
We have established a protocol for generating a systematic evidence map on dietary supplements and their ability to influence biological performance of abalone. This map will identify knowledge gaps and help researchers and industry stakeholders quickly pinpoint priority areas for future R&D investment. In doing so, it will support greater translation of academic research into industry practice. By evaluating available literature, this work will also identify evidence clusters and sub-topics for further quantitative meta-analysis.