Vaccination plays an extremely important part in the fish farming industry and has become a major reason for the success of fish farming.
The significant economic benefits of vaccination are found in the reduction in mortality rates, higher harvest weights and a higher quality final product when compared with antibiotic treatments.
Antibiotic treaments are generally applied once a disease has been identified and several treatments may be required with each treatment becoming progressively more costly as the size of the fish increases. Vaccination is applied to only healthy fish and is a preventative measure resulting in reduced morbidity and mortality rates providing improved growth, reductions in medicated food and a reduction in the management time required for the husbandry of infected fish stocks.
The use of vaccination as the primary treatment against disease in farmed fish has proven to be of important economic benefit to the aquaculture industry. In addition, many of the environmental objections to fish farming are removed which should prove to be of long term economic benefit and assist in the long term environmental sustainability of fish farming.