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Aquaculture is the fastest growing food
production sector in the world and provides a
significant supplement to, and substitute for, wild
fish and plants. However, disease has become a
primary constraint to aquaculture growth and is now
responsible for the severe impact on both the
economic and socio-economic development in many
countries of the world. Addressing health questions
with both pro-active and reactive programmes has
therefore become an urgent requirement for
sustaining the growth of aquatic animal food
production.
A multitude of factors has contributed to the
health problems currently faced by aquaculture.
Over the past three decades, aquaculture has
expanded, intensified, and diversified, based
heavily on movements of animals and animal products
such as broodstock, seed, and feed. Such movements
are now clearly recognized as having played a
pivotal role in the introduction and spread of
pathogens and disease into aquaculture systems.
The impacts of many such transboundary
disease movements extend beyond direct
mortalities and production losses - they are
particularly hard-felt by small-scale farmers, who
represent the backbone of many rural communities in
developed as well as developing countries.
Aquaculture losses in these situations directly
threaten the livelihoods of whole communities
through reduction in food availability, loss of
income and employment, with all the associated
social consequences.
In addition to the emergence of new diseases,
and their potential establishment in new areas and
wild populations, the irresponsible use of chemical
disinfectants and antibiotics is also increasingly
recognized as having potential environmental
impacts. Furthermore, intensive culture practices
with poorly controlled feed use and waste
production have adversely affected local
environments. Since good water quality is paramount
to optimum health and production in aquaculture,
such adverse effects are beginning to provoke
increased scrutiny, and there is now a growing
appreciation of the need to develop, sustain and
publicize better husbandry practices. A good
example is the reduction of antibiotic use in
Norwegian salmon production, as vaccine production
became the favoured practice for control of
bacterial and viral diseases.
An effective health management programme must
cover all levels of aquaculture activity, from the
production unit (pond, tank, cage, etc.), farm,
district/local or zone levels, to the national and
regional/international level. The success of such a
broad-ranging programme relies on the constant open
communication and information exchange flowing in
all directions.
Formulators of an effective health management
programme will always be confronted with a wide
range of problems concerning:
- human resources
- infrastructure
- availability of information and data
- farmer knowledge base
- funding
- political commitment
- government priorities
- farmer/industry/consumer response
- varying degrees of interaction between the
stakeholders;
- environmental factors (river systems shared
by many countries, contiguous marine coastal
zones, etc.).
Other challenges to effective health management
programmes lie in the demonstration of its benefits
to the farmer and other 'fish links' involved in
production, trade and use of aquatic resources
(such as anglers and ornamental hobbyists). In
order to secure cooperation and support of
programmes aimed at prevention and control of
aquatic diseases, all parties must be convinced
that benefits (in terms of socio-economics,
environmental health, etc.) will result from
compliance with such programmes and achieve clean
health status.
Diseases will continue to emerge, efforts to
control them will be pursued and there will always
be a range of problems to be tackled along the way.
The varying levels of political, economic and
social development among countries, the
transboundary nature and commonality of many major
disease problems, and the need to harmonize
approaches, all strongly argue for effective
cooperation at all levels of management in order to
make the most effective use of limited resources.
Building on sub-regional, regional and
international cooperation through joint strategies
and approaches that avoid duplication of effort and
competition are essential for this process.
However, all such efforts will be ineffective
without national commitment from responsible
authorities. The current situation offers big
challenges to all concerned and, if maintained at
the present level, risks of major epidemics will
continue to threaten and emerge with costs that
extend far beyond economics.
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