Abalone in the Haliotis genus are economically important for aquaculture. Abalone naturally graze on macroalgae however formulated pellets are more commonly being adopted in aquaculture. Dietary supplements in formulated pellets including probiotics, algal products and vitamins can modulate abalone growth, immunity and product quality. There has been poor commercial translation of research on dietary supplements in formulated food for abalone. Poor research extension has largely been influenced by a lack of formal evidence synthesis on the topic. This review is the first to summarise global research on dietary supplements and their influence on the biological performance of abalone by developing a systematic evidence map.
The protocol was registered prior to searches and literature screening (doi.org/10.17605/
OSF.IO/9823J). Grey literature and primary articles available in English were considered with no geographical constraint. A pre-defined search string was used to search the WOS and SCOPUS databases, yielding 124 eligible articles. An additional 17 grey literature articles were identified by other sources and 3 through backward/forward citation search. After screening, 144 articles were included in the systematic evidence map.
The temporal scale ranged from 1995 to 2025. Geographical contribution, study designs and species were for the most part, reflective of global trends in abalone production. Geographical contribution was greatest for China (n = 69, 47.6%) followed by Australia (n = 31, 21.4%) and South Africa (n = 17, 11.7%). Algal and/or diatom meals were the most common dietary supplements, following by vitamins and probiotics. Growth performance and survival were the most investigated measures of biological performance (Figure 1).
This map has identified knowledge clusters, highlighting sub-topics for future meta-analysis. This map will also help researchers and industry stakeholders quickly pinpoint priority areas for future research and development.