| Aquaculture is one of the most rapidly developing sectors of global food production, contributing significantly to socio-economic development by providing food security and export earnings from high-value products. The importance of the industry to the expanding world population is underscored by the growing gap between supply and demand for seafood. However, rapid growth in aquaculture has been accompanied by increasing problems with disease, and disease is now seen as a very significant threat to sustainable production and trade. During the past decade, disease has devastated prawn farming in Asia and Latin America, with annual losses of up to US$3 billion. Devastating losses have also hit the salmon farming industries of Europe and North America, the... |
