Diseases can have significant economic impact on aquaculture operations. For example global economic loss due to white spot disease, a viral disease of prawns, was estimated to be $US3000 million/year in 2001 (Hill, 2001).
Disease is a departure from the normal health status of the animal. In aquaculture disease can cause decreased weight gain, poor feed conversion ratios, unmarketable product and in more severe disease, some or all of the animals in a population may die.
Aquaculture diseases can be caused by:
A. Non-infectious causes
- Nutritional factors such as poor or imbalanced diet, too much or too little food and unpalatable food
- Cancer
- Gas bubble disease
- Physical damage e.g. sunburn, electric shock, cannibalism
- Toxins e.g. pesticides, herbicides
- Poor Water Quality e.g. low dissolved oxygen, high levels of ammonia, nitrite or CO2
2. Infectious causes e.g. pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.
Check out these links below to learn more about some non-infectious causes of aquaculture diseases:
Once you have checked the links on non-infectious causes of aquaculture diseases — complete the following tasks by writing a comment:
- Summarise the information you gained from reading these articles.
- Was there any aspects you didn’t understand or want further clarified?
- How can fish farmers minimise stock losses due to non-infectious diseases?
