Research on the use of probiotics in shrimp aquaculture: a bibliometrics-based review

In this study, we used bibliometric methods to systematically analyse the application of probiotics in shrimp aquaculture from 2000 to 2024. We obtained 2,331 articles from the Web of Science Core Collection database, and analysed the number of publications, country of publication, highly cited articles and keywords with the help of Citespace and VOSviewer. The study found that the number of publications showed an overall growth trend during this period, with a rapid growth after 2017, with an annual growth rate of 12.4 percent. China tops the list of publications, accounting for 37.15% of the total, and also plays an important role in international cooperation. Highly cited literature focused on key topics such as probiotic application mechanisms, and keyword analysis showed that the research revolved around the core directions of shrimp growth performance, immune response, gut microbiota and pathogen prevention and control. This study is the first to comprehensively integrate years of literatures in this field, clarifying research problems and technical bottlenecks, providing reference directions for subsequent research, and revealing international cooperation modes to help global collaborative innovation. However, there are limitations in the current study, such as the lack of uniform standards for probiotics, unknown mechanisms of action, and difficulties in the translation of practical applications. It is expected that a unified standard system can be constructed in the future to promote the green and sustainable development of shrimp aquaculture industry.