The many challenges of disease management in aquaculture
Regardless of the aquatic species an aquaculture venture produces, there are significant risks to su...
Offshore aquaculture has been constrained by concerns of negative environmental impacts. Welch et al. (2019) present environmental sampling data over time from commercially scaled offshore submersible cages. The net nutrient effect was minimal. A sediment enrichment trend in the farm vicinity suggested the need for temporary fallowing. Data provide reason for cautious optimism that offshore aquaculture can operate with a relatively small nutrient footprint.
Disease outbreaks cause serious economic losses and disrupt supply chains. In this review paper, Flegel (2019) presents a vision for the future control of diseases using shrimp aquaculture as an example. Recent research advances on the nature of shrimp-pathogen interactions are reviewed along with a discussion of promising new directions that involve “immune priming” and “trained immunity” of RNA interference and endogenous viral elements.
Hybrid catfish have been considered more disease resistant than channel catfish. Griffin et al. (2019) furthered efforts to understand the newly described Edwardsiella piscicida for which hybrids have been shown to be more susceptible. Phenotypical and molecular identities of archived isolates from disease case submissions from 2013 to 2017 confirmed that hybrid catfish accounted for 89% of the presumptive E. piscicida cases and documented associated gross and histological lesions.
An important goal of aquaculture nutrition research in recent years has been to reduce the use of fishmeal. Pradhan et al. (2019) furthered this effort by developing recommendations for feeding levels of plant ingredient-based feeds for Indian major carps. Importantly, this evaluation was conducted under commercial production conditions. Further analysis revealed little effect on carcass traits, sensory characteristics, and consumer acceptance.