Successful aquaculture requires practical and sustainable production methods. The challenge is to develop profitable and sustainable cultivation facilities that implement advanced technologies and minimize adverse environmental effects. This growing concern about environmental effects represents one of the many motivations that have driven the aquaculture industry’s interest in examining alternatives to traditional intensive aquaculture methods.
Recirculating aquaculture systems can be defined as an aquaculture system that incorporates the treatment and reuse of water with less than 10% of the total water volume replaced per day. The recirculating aquaculture system offers fish producers a variety of important advantages over open pond culture. These include maximizing production on a limited supply of water and land, nearly complete environmental control to maximize year-round fish growth, the flexibility to locate production facilities near large markets, complete and convenient harvesting, and rapid and effective disease control.
Indoor recirculating aquaculture systems have minimal environmental effects due to their minimal flow of water (and effluent) to the surrounding environment. Due to the nature and design of indoor recirculating aquaculture systems, they can allow the safe introduction of exotic species that can be grown in close proximity to the market, without the costs and environmental pollution associated with the importation and air transport of such products. Producing aquatic species in close proximity to markets allows for longer shelf life and better product quality. Biosecurity measures in indoor recirculating aquaculture systems and the segregation of these systems from open environments represent a significant barrier to the introduction of diseases into the culture system.
However, once introduced, recirculating systems provide an optimal environment for the spread and clinical expression of disease-causing organisms.There are a number of reasons for this, including suboptimal environmental parameters (ammonia, nitrite, pH, oxygen, suspended solids, etc.), continued stress response, and various levels of immunosuppression of fish populations such as very high densities, very high loads, high organic matter and pathogen accumulation in the different components of the production system, tanks, pipes, mechanical and biological filtration systems.
We will describe in detail specific veterinary management tools and measures for successful disease prevention and optimization of growth performance in indoor recirculating aquaculture systems.
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