Toward sustainable aquaculture by innovation on fish body imaging diagnostics

August 26, 2025

Evaluating the functionality of thermophilic bacteria-fermented feed contributing to disease resistance

A collaborative research group from the RIKEN CSRS, the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, the RIKEN BioResource Research Center, and Kitasato University has successfully developed a computational diagnostic imaging framework that enables rapid and quantitative assessment of physiological responses in fish using field photographs. This framework applies noninvasive diagnostic imaging techniques, commonly used in medical engineering, to aquaculture, allowing for efficient evaluation of fish body surface characteristics from external photographs.

Through model experiments, the research group first demonstrated that administering recycled compost, which produced using thermophilic bacteria, led to a reduction in fish mortality caused by disease. Alongside this, qualitative differences in body surface smoothness and glossiness were observed, prompting the team to apply image analysis indicators such as GLCM (Gray-Level Co-occurrence) and LBP (Local Binary Pattern) to develop a method for rapid health assessment. These findings suggest that utilizing high-quality recycled fermented feed may reduce the need for antibiotics, and that noninvasive image-based diagnostics can contribute to building a sustainable fisheries model.

 

Original article

The Innovation Life　doi: 10.59717/j.xinn-life.2025.100155

H. Miyamoto, S. Ito, K. Suzuki, S. Tamachi, S. Yamada, T. Nagatsuka, T. Satoh, M. Udagawa, H. Miyamoto, H. Ohno, J. Kikuchi,

"A putative research model for sustainable fisheries driven by noninvasive diagnostic imaging".

Contact

Jun Kikuchi
Team Director
Environmental Metabolic Analysis Research Team