Maintenance of Fish Health in Aquaculture: Review of Epidemiological Approaches for Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease of Fish

Abstract

Aquaculture is rapidly growing part of agriculture worldwide. It makes up around 44 percent of total fish production globally. This increased growth of production is achieved despite facing many challenges in the aquaculture environment. Among production limiting challenges, the infectious disease takes the lion share by causing multibillion-dollar loss annually. To reduce the impact of the fish disease, it is necessary to address health constraints based on scientifically proven and recommended ways. This review aims at pointing out some of the best approaches to prevention and control of infectious disease in aquaculture. Among the effective prevention and control strategies, vaccination is one of the key practices. Types of vaccines for use in fish include killed vaccines, attenuated vaccines, DNA vaccines, recombinant technology vaccines, and synthetic peptide vaccines. Administration techniques of vaccines in fish include oral, injection, or immersion methods. Antibiotics are also in use in aquaculture despite their side effects in the development of drug resistance by microorganisms. Biological and chemical disease control strategies such as using probiotics, prebiotics, and medicinal plants are widely in use. Biosecurity measures in aquaculture can keep the safety of a facility from certain disease-causing agents that are absent in particular system. Farm-level biosecurity measures include strict quarantine measures, egg disinfection, traffic control, water treatments, clean feed, and disposal of mortalities. In conclusion, rather than trying to treat every disease case, it advisable to follow a preventive approach before the event of any disease outbreaks.