An overview of current programs on drug development and regulation for aquaculture: Regional Aquaculture Center perspective.
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The consumption of seafood, especially shrimp, increases yearly in the U.S. The U.S. is the second largest importer of shrimp in the world, consuming more than 11% of the total world production. Aquaculture is becoming an increasingly important source of the world's shrimp, currently accounting for approximately 30% of the world's supply. Unfortunately, in this era of international trade deficits, U.S. production of aquacultured shrimp is insignificant (< 0.1%) compared with world production. As shrimp aquaculture expands in the U.S., so does the use of intensive farming techniques. Shrimp aquaculture is like any other animal husbandry industry in that shrimp are subject to disease, especially under intensive farming methods. In penaeid shrimp, the primary diseases associated with mortalities are usually viral or bacterial. The majority of bacterial infections in penaeid shrimp are attributable to Vibrio species, with mortalities ranging from insignificant to 100%. However, the rapid growth of this industry has outpaced efforts by researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and federal regulatory agencies to provide approved therapeutants for shrimp disease management. Approval of drugs and their surveillance for compliance with regulations applicable to seafoods, including aquacultured goods, is the responsibility of the FDA. There are three general areas of concern regarding human health when chemotherapeutants are used in aquaculture: (1) residues of drugs in fish destined for human consumption; (2) development of drug resistance in human pathogenic bacteria; and (3) direct toxic effects to humans from handling of drugs. Currently, there are no antibacterials approved for shrimp aquaculture in the U.S. One of the major obstacles in the development and approval of new drugs for aquaculture is the cost of conducting the required studies. The high cost to pharmaceutical companies discourages investment in shrimp chemotherapeutant research, since the current U.S. market for such products is small. Unfortunately, the U.S. shrimp aquaculture industry will remain small without legal availability of chemotherapeutants. Oxytetracycline (OTC) and Romet-30 are two antibacterials currently approved in the U.S. for catfish and salmonid aquaculture. Shrimp aquaculture facilities outside of the U.S. routinely use these drugs, as well as others, in the treatment of bacterial disease outbreaks. Much of the work required for OTC approval by the FDA for penaeid shrimp has been completed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Water quality impacts to and from intensive shrimp aquaculture in Thailand are substantial. Besides the surface and subsurface salinization of freshwaters, loadings of solids, oxygen-consuming organic matter, and nutrients to receiving waters are considerable when the cumulative impacts from water exchange during the growout cycle, pond drainage during harvesting, and illegal pond sediment disposal are taken into account. Although just beginning to be considered in Thailand, partial recirculating and integrated intensive farming systems are producing promising, if somewhat limited, results. By providing on-site treatment of the effluent from the shrimp growout ponds, there is less reliance on using outside water supplies, believed to be the source of the contamination.The explosion in the number of intensively operated shrimp farms has not only impacted the coastal zone of Thailand, but has also resulted in an unsustainable aquaculture industry. Abandonment of shrimp ponds due to either drastic, disease-caused collapses or more grandual, year-to-year reductions in the productivity of the pond is common. To move Thailand towards a more sustainable aquaculture industry and coastal zone environment, integrated aquaculture management is needed. Components of integrated aquaculture management are technical and institutional. The technical components involve deployment of wastewater treatment and minimal water-use systems aimed at making aquaculture operations more hydraulically closed. Before this is possible, technical and economic feasibility studies on enhanced nitrification systems and organic solids removal by oxidation between production cycles and/or the utilization of plastic pond liners need to be conducted. The integration of semi-intensive aquaculture within mangrove areas also should be investigated since mangrove losses attributable to shrimp aquaculture are estimated to be between 16 and 32 % of the total mangrove area destroyed betweeen 1979 and 1993.Government policy needs to devote as much attention to sustainability issues as it has on promoting intensive pond culture. Such a balanced policy would include training and education monitoring and enforcement, rehabilitating abandoned ponds, managing land use within the coastal zone, more community involvement, and government reorganization to eliminate overlapping jurisdictions among agencies.As integrated aquaculture management becomes more the practice than the exception, less risk of crop failure to the industry and reduced discharge loadings from intensively managed shrimp ponds to receiving waters can be expected. Projected limitations on growing and marketing shrimp in the future, such as scarcity of land and broodstock, continued disease outbreaks, negative publicity, regulatory enforcement, water treatment and solids disposal costs, and increased competition from growers in other Asian countries will also drive the government and the industry towards adopting integrated aquaculture management.KEY WORDS: Shrimp aquaculture; Thailand; Historical practices; Environmental impacts; Sustainability; Integrated management; Water treatment; Institutional aspects
Aquaculture is important to the United States and the world's fishery system. Both import and export markets for aquaculture products will expand and increase as research begins to remove physiologic and other animal husbandry barriers. Overfishing of wild stock will necessitate supplementation and replenishment through aquaculture. The aquaculture industry must have a better understanding of the impact of the "shrouded" public and animal health issues: technology ignorance, abuse, and neglect. Cross-pollination and cross-training of public health and aquaculture personnel in the effect of public health, animal health, and environmental health on aquaculture are also needed. Future aquaculture development programs require an integrated Gestalt public health approach to ensure that aquaculture does not cause unacceptable risks to public or environmental health and negate the potential economic and nutritional benefits of aquaculture.
Since production from capture fisheries cannot meet the demands of exports, aquaculture has subsequently played a major role in securing the raw materials for the world's food industries. Aquaculture has rapidly developed from extensive systems to semi-intensive, intensive and super-intensive systems. This has introduced the use of chemicals and drugs into the systems, which cause residual problems in the products. In the developed world, food safety has become a major issue of concern. The world market now demands healthy aquaculture products from farm to table. To achieve these requirements and to keep their markets, countries involved in aquaculture have implemented control measures such as farm licensing, code of conduct for sustainable aquaculture, hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) and good aquaculture practice. However, infectious diseases in aquaculture are of major concern to the industry and are typically controlled by eradication of the pathogen, treatment with antibiotic or chemotherapeutics, and/or by preventative measures such as the use of probiotics or vaccines. To limit the use of chemicals and antibiotics, good farm management is highly recommended. In terms of treatment, chemicals and antibiotics should be evaluated to establish recommended doses and withdrawal periods, otherwise alternative treatments should be developed. Environmentally-friendly probiotics have been introduced to aquaculture practice in the last decade to replace pathogenic bacteria with beneficial bacteria transient in the gut. Micro-organisms have also been prepared for the purpose of biocontrol and bioremediation. The application of probiotic, biocontrol and bioremediation seem promising; however considerable efforts of further research in terms of food and environmental safety are needed. Vaccination has proved highly effective in controlling diseases in the salmon industry mainly in Europe, America and Japan. In other Asian countries, this practice seem to be slower to develop due to differences in the aquaculture systems used and the economic value of the fish species farmed. Because shrimp farming is a large industry in this region, much effort has been put into developing a vaccine for viral diseases of shrimp. The efficacy of those vaccines remains inconclusive. Immunostimulants are another option developed for use in the shrimp industry in the region; however their efficacy also remains unclear.
Recirculating aquaculture systems are highly intensive culture systems that actively filter and reuse water, thus minimizing water requirements and creating relatively small volumes of concentrated waste (compared to flow-through aquaculture systems). Vermicomposting, which uses earthworms to stabilize and transform organic wastes into valuable end-products, has been proposed as an alternative treatment technology for high-moisture-content organic wastes from agricultural, industrial and municipal sources. This study was conducted to determine if the effluent solids from a large recirculating aquaculture facility (Blue Ridge Aquaculture, Martinsville, Virginia) were suitable for vermicomposting using the earthworm Eisenia fetida. In two separate experiments, worms were fed mixtures of solids removed from aquaculture effluent (sludge) and shredded. Mixtures containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 50% aquaculture sludge (dry weight basis) were fed to the worms over a 12-week period and their growth (biomass) was measured. Worm mortality, which occurred only in the first experiment, was not influenced by feedstock sludge concentration. In both experiments worm growth rates tended to increase with increasing sludge concentration, with the highest growth rate occurring with feedstocks containing 50% aquaculture sludge. Effluent solids from recirculating aquaculture systems mixed with shredded cardboard appear to be suitable feedstocks for vermicomposting.
Being an essentially open system, cages are usually characterized by a high degree of interaction with environment and cage systems are highly likely to produce large bulk of wastes that are released directly into the environment. Therefore, large-scale cage aquaculture development has been put into question and concerns have been raised that cage aquaculture produces large bulk of wastes that are rich in organic matter and nutrients and are released into coastal and nearshore environment. Recent information on cage aquaculture nutrient budget is scarce and most published reports are dated. This paper reviews cage aquaculture nutrient budget and nutrient loadings and propose a model for nutrient (nitrogen, N and phosphorus, P) budget in a hypothetical cage aquaculture farm with values of feed loss, FCR (feed conversion ratio) and nutrient contents in feed and fish taken from published literature in order to calculate the amount (kg) of N and P produced and released to the environment for each ton of fish produced. The paper proposes, in addition, a critically analyzed nutrient budget based on the dry matter conversion rate instead of the usual feed conversion rate. The conceptual model shows that 132.5 kg N and 25.0 kg P are released to the environment for each ton of fish produced; these values are as high as 462.5 kg N and 80.0 kg P when calculated on the basis of dry matter conversion rate instead of usual feed conversion rate. Thus, the annual global N and P loadings from cage aquaculture (10,000 tons fish and 3000 tons dry matter) are 1325 tons N and 250 tons P and 1387.5 tons N and 240.0 tons P based on usual feed conversion rate and dry matter conversion rate respectively. The paper also proposes, by analyzing the existing data, an FCR-based regression model for predicting nutrient loadings for a given diet. Finally, attempt was made to calculate the annual global loading and release of N and P from cage aquaculture to the coastal and marine environment, the potential impacts of nutrient loading on the ecosystem were discussed and critical points to be considered for minimizing nutrient output in cage aquaculture were suggested.
AIMS: To carry out a preliminary assessment of the occurrence of resistance to antimicrobials in bacteria that has been isolated from a variety of aquaculture species and environments in Australia. METHOD AND RESULTS: A total of 100 Gram-negative (Vibrio spp. and Aeromonas spp. predominantly) and four Gram-positive bacteria isolated from farmed fish, crustaceans and water from crab larval rearing tanks were obtained from diagnostic laboratories from different parts of Australia. All the isolates were tested for sensitivity to 19 antibiotics and Minimal Inhibitory Concentrations were determined by the agar dilution method. Plasmid DNA was isolated by the alkali lysis method. Resistance to ampicillin, amoxycillin, cephalexin and erythromycin was widespread; resistance to oxytetracycline, tetracycline, nalidixic acid and sulfonamides was common but resistance to chloramphenicol, florfenicol, ceftiofur, cephalothin, cefoperazone, oxolinic acid, gentamicin, kanamycin and trimethoprim was less common. All strains were susceptible to ciprofloxacin. Multiple resistance was also observed and 74.4% of resistant isolates had between one and ten plasmids with sizes ranging 2-51 kbp. CONCLUSIONS: No antibiotics are registered for use in aquaculture in Australia but these results suggest that there has been significant off-label use. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: Transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria to humans via the food chain is a significant health concern. In comparison with studies on terrestrial food producing animals, there are fewer studies on antibiotic resistance in bacteria from aquaculture enterprises and this study provides further support to the view that there is the risk of transfer of resistant bacteria to humans from consumption of aquaculture products. From the Australian perspective, although there are no products registered for use in aquaculture, antimicrobial resistance is present in isolates from aquaculture and aquaculture environments.
Aquaculture has been seen as a solution to food/protein availability in rural populations of poor countries. It is mainly based on exotic species, that produce changes in host system dynamics once introduced. Aquaculture not only changes the ecology of freshwater systems, but can also lead to modification of social relations. Until now, aquaculture programs have not been adequately analyzed no questioned enough. We evaluate both ecological effects and local social benefits of common carp aquaculture programs in shallow ponds of rural areas, using a municipality in Central Mexico as a case study. Using an "environmental entitlements" approach, our findings suggest that: i) carp aquaculture increases water turbidity and depletes native species reducing the poor people's access to them; ii) aquaculture mainly benefits pond owners rather than poor peasants. This mainly results from changes in fishing rights. We conclude that aquaculture policy goals and assumptions of benefits should be reviewed, if the negative ecological effects are to be decreased and conditions for people in rural areas are to be improved.
Industrial antibiotic usage in agribusinesses and aquaculture is the force that drives the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria that produce human and animal disease in many countries. Several studies have demonstrated that most of the industrial use of antibiotics is unnecessary, and that modernization and hygienic changes can reduce this use of antibiotics without negative economic impact. In Chile, industrial aquaculture of salmon has expanded rapidly in the last 20 years becoming a major export business. The exponential growth of this industry has been accompanied by an unrestricted heavy usage of antibiotics in the aquatic environments of lakes, rivers and the ocean, and its impact is being felt in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria around aquaculture sites and a decrease in the plancktonic diversity in the same areas. The passage of antibiotic resistance genes from aquatic bacteria to human and animal pathogens has been demonstrated, indicating that industrial use of antibiotics in aquaculture affects negatively the antibiotic therapy of human and animal bacterial infections. The Chilean situation triggers important concerns because it includes the use of fluoroquinolones in aquaculture, that are not biodegradable and are able to remain in the environment for years as well as being still effective in treating human infections. The use of large volumes of a wide spectrum of antibiotics in an aquatic environment heavily contaminated with human and animal pathogens also amplifies the opportunities for gene transfer among bacteria, facilitating the emergence of antibiotic resistance and more pathogenic bacterial recombinants. The detection of residual antibiotics in salmons marketed for human consumption that can modify the normal flora of the population also suggests the need for controls on this antibiotic usage and on the presence of residual antibiotics in aquaculture food products. This important problem of public health demands an active dialogue between government officials responsible for protecting public health, aquaculture industry representatives, politicians, consumers and professionals dealing with these matters.
The past decade has seen rapid expansion in aquaculture production. In the fisheries sector, as in animal production, farming is replacing hunting as the primary food production strategy. In future, farmed fish will be an even more important source of protein foods than they are today, and the safety for human consumption of products from aquaculture is of public health significance. This is the report of a Study Group that considered food safety issues associated with farmed finfish and crustaceans. The principal conclusion was that an integrated approach--involving close collaboration between the aquaculture, agriculture, food safety, health and education sectors--is needed to identify and control hazards associated with products from aquaculture. Food safety assurance should be included in fish farm management and form an integral part of the farm-to-table food safety continuum. Where appropriate, measures should be based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) methods; however, difficulties in applying HACCP principles to small-scale farming systems were recognized. Food safety hazards associated with products from aquaculture differ according to region, habitat and environmental conditions, as well as methods of production and management. Lack of awareness of hazards can hinder risk assessment and the application of risk management strategies to aquaculture production, and education is therefore needed. Chemical and biological hazards that should to be taken into account in public health policies concerning products from aquaculture are discussed in this report, which should be of use to policy-makers and public health officials. The report will also assist fish farmers to identify hazards and develop appropriate hazard-control strategies.
Over the past years the export of agricultural and fishery products from developing countries has substantially increased to markets within the OECD. Retailers and importers are expanding their international operations to meet consumer demands for year-round delivery of products. Moreover, consumers have become increasingly concerned about the safety of food, including those derived from aquatic resources [FAO/NACA/WHO Joint Study Group, 1999. Report food safety issues associated with products from aquaculture. WHO Technical Report Series No 883: VII, pp. 1-55]. Governments and leading businesses are responding by imposing new safety regulations and standards to the international food system (e.g. HACCP, EUREP-GAP), product liability and labeling [Reilly, A., Howgate, P., Käferstein, F., 1997. Safety hazards and the application of HACCP in aquaculture. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Fish Inspection and Quality Control: A Global Focus, Arlington, VA, 19-24 May 1996. Technomic Publishing, Lancaster, PA, pp. 353-373]. Initial concerns for imports of aquacultural products from developing to industrialized countries focussed on bacterial contamination [Buras, N. 1993. Microbial safety of produce from wastewater-fed aquaculture. In: Pullin, R.V.C., Rosenthal, H., MacLean, J.L.(Eds.), Proceedings of ICLARM Conferences, vol. 31, pp. 285-295]. Today, if trade opportunities are to be maintained, these countries must adapt to a full array of regulations and standards. This paper describes four scenarios in aquaculture and fishing product trade between developing countries and countries in the European Union.
Asia contributes more than 90% to the world's aquaculture production. Like other farming systems, aquaculture is plagued with disease problems resulting from its intensification and commercialization. This paper describes the various factors, providing specific examples, which have contributed to the current disease problems faced by what is now the fastest growing food-producing sector globally. These include increased globalization of trade and markets; the intensification of fish-farming practices through the movement of broodstock, postlarvae, fry and fingerlings; the introduction of new species for aquaculture development; the expansion of the ornamental fish trade; the enhancement of marine and coastal areas through the stocking of aquatic animals raised in hatcheries; the unanticipated interactions between cultured and wild populations of aquatic animals; poor or lack of effective biosecurity measures; slow awareness on emerging diseases; the misunderstanding and misuse of specific pathogen free (SPF) stocks; climate change; other human-mediated movements of aquaculture commodities. Data on the socio-economic impacts of aquatic animal diseases are also presented, including estimates of losses in production, direct and indirect income and employment, market access or share of investment, and consumer confidence; food availability; industry failures. Examples of costs of investment in aquatic animal health-related activities, including national strategies, research, surveillance, control and other health management programmes are also provided. Finally, the strategies currently being implemented in the Asian region to deal with transboundary diseases affecting the aquaculture sector are highlighted. These include compliance with international codes, and development and implementation of regional guidelines and national aquatic animal health strategies; new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and new information technology; new biosecurity measures including risk analysis, epidemiology, surveillance, reporting and planning for emergency response to epizootics; targeted research; institutional strengthening and manpower development (education, training and extension research and diagnostic services).
The study was undertaken to assess the marine environmental effects from feed and waste associated with aquaculture activities. Metal compositions of sediment, lobster, and feed were used to evaluate the extent of detectable effects at 0 m (under the cage) and 50 m distance. Sediments that were collected under the cages and were characterised as hypoxic or anoxic, showed elevated levels of Cu, Zn, organic carbon, and % <63 microm particles, and low Mn and Fe. At 50 m there was a major reduction in waste chemical impact. Using lobster, a bioindicator species, as a tool for detecting near-field impacts, showed accumulations of high Cu associated with active aquaculture sites. Chemical compositions and metal ratios normalised with organic carbon, were used to assess the sediment conditions associated with environmental monitoring program ratings (EMP--normal, hypoxic, and anoxic). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to explore chemical data at all sites for differentiating normal, hypoxic and anoxic sediment conditions. Selected variables (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, organic carbon, and particles <63 microm) were sufficient for the PCA approach with >90% explainable variance of first two components. The groupings based on PCA and cluster analysis were similar to EMP classifications with some exceptions of mis-identification by EMP. The sediment chemistry components were valid indicators for evaluating marine environmental conditions and for assessing aquaculture operating sites. The developed techniques, using chemical variables in combination with EMP and the statistical approach should be useful to predict the effects of aquaculture practices and the suitability of aquaculture operations.
Lactococcus garvieae is an important pathogen in aquaculture, outbreaks of which significantly affect production. It is a rare pathogen with a low virulence in human infection. The relation between the aquaculture outbreak and the human infection has not been clarified. Prospective and retrospective epidemiologic surveillance of the four patients with L. garvieae infection between 2000 and 2003 and their relations to the aquaculture outbreaks of L. garvieae were conducted. All the four patients with L. garvieae infection were associated with gastrointestinal disorders. Three of the four patients gave a history of consuming raw fish and in three of the four patients, the infection occurred in summer between June and August while there is a decrease of fisheries production and an increase in L. garvieae infection in aquaculture farms. There was a 100% identity of 16S rDNA sequence of L. garvieae isolates from patient 1 and from the squid muscle obtained from the restaurant where patient 1 consumed the raw fish. Sporadic occurrence of L. garvieae infection in human appears to correlate with the seasonal aquaculture outbreaks of L. garvieae infection. The presence of gastro-intestinal disorder may facilitate L. garvieae infection.
The creation of sound health regulations or disease control programs for any animal species is a complex endeavor. When the diverse stakeholder interests related to aquaculture are considered, this endeavor becomes daunting. The AVMA Aquaculture and Seafood Advisory Committee designed the following guidelines as a tool to assist aquatic animal health professionals who discuss potential regulations or control programs with government and industry entities. The guide focuses on determining whether a regulation or program is appropriate and, if so, developing a suitable and effective aquatic animal health plan. The Aquaculture and Seafood Advisory Committee was established in 1992 as an ad hoc committee of the AVMA Executive Board. The committee is composed of 9 veterinarians with diverse interests in aquaculture and seafood, and one non-veterinarian who represents the aquaculture industry. Participants from the USDA/APHIS and FDA serve as consultants to the Committee.
This paper reviews the experience and status of coastal aquaculture of seaweeds, mollusks, fish and crustaceans in eastern Africa and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. In many respects, coastal aquaculture is still in its infancy in the region, and there is a pressing need to formulate development strategies aimed at improving the income and assuring the availability of affordable protein to coastal communities. This paper also draws from positive and negative experiences in other parts of the world. The requirements of feed and fry, and the conversion of mangroves are used to illustrate how some aquaculture activities constitute a net loss to global seafood production. The paper presents both general and specific sustainability guidelines based on the acknowledgement of aquaculture as an ecological process. It is concluded that without clear recognition of its dependence on natural ecosystems, the aquaculture industry is unlikely to develop to its full potential in the region.
This work analyzed spatially potential carcinogenic risks associated with ingesting arsenic (As) contents in aquacultural tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) in coastal regions of southwestern Taiwan, where the blackfoot disease prevails. Sequential indicator simulation (SIS) was used to reproduce As exposure distributions in groundwater based on their three-dimensional variability. A target cancer risk (TR) associated with ingesting As in aquacultural tilapia was calculated to evaluate the potential risk to human health. Owing to sparse measured data, Monte Carlo simulation and SIS properly accounted for the uncertainty of assessed parameters. The probabilistic risk assessment formulated suitable strategies under various remedial stages. Aquacultural regions with high risks were mapped to elucidate the safety of groundwater use at different depths. Many TRs determined from the risks at the 75th and 95th percentiles exceed one millionth in the regions, indicating that ingesting tilapia farmed in the highly As-polluted regions poses potential cancer threats to human health. The 75th percentile of TR is considered in formulating a remedial strategy for the aquacultural use of groundwater in the preliminary stage. Additionally, this study suggests reducing the use of groundwater in aquaculture or changing the depths from which groundwater is withdrawn in the areas with high risks of cancer.