The many challenges of disease management in aquaculture
Regardless of the aquatic species an aquaculture venture produces, there are significant risks to su...
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the most economically important disease of shrimp, and early diagnosis is critical to minimize losses. Current diagnostic methods are expensive, time consuming, and require specialized laboratory equipment and personnel. Minardi et al. (2019) describe the development and application of a new diagnostic test that is easy to use on farms by non-experts. It is affordable and results are available in 70 minutes.
Early mortality syndrome/acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) first appeared in 2009, causing serious losses of shrimp. Prachumwat et al. (2019) describe the length of time to identify the causative agent, develop rapid detection methods, and reviews genomic and proteomic studies of VPAHPND isolates from different countries. The paper further presents the need for a global cooperative emergency response network for disease outbreaks.
Amoebic gill disease is a major problem for the cleaner fish species most frequently used in salmon farming, the wrasse species and lumpfish, for control of sea lice. Treasurer and Turnbull (2019) report results of studies on the use of freshwater bath treatments for amoebic gill disease. High efficacy of reducing amoebic numbers was achieved with: 5-hour treatment at 0 ppt salinity; 3-hour treatment of 0, 3, 0r 5 ppt salinity; and 3-day treatment at 15 ppt.
Mandarin fish, Siniperca scherzeri, is a highly-valued fish in China, but decreased wild landings have created market shortages. Farmed mandarin fish are primarily fed live fish of other species, and formulated feeds are not available for mandarin fish. Sankian et al. (2019) investigated the dietary protein level of juvenile mandarin fish, finding that juvenile mandarin fish need a relatively high level of crude protein (614 g/kg) in their diets.