Food technology 4 Flashcards
Outline welfare in fish production
- No inherent factors in fish farming that result in inevitable poor welfare
- Only where poorly run
- 6 key stressors in aquaculture environment
What are the 6 key stressors in aquaculture?
- Water quality
- Crowding
- handling
- Disturbance
- Nutrition
- Hierarchy
How may water quality lead to stress in farmed fish?
Contaminated water can make it hard to breathe
How may crowding lead to stress in farmed fish?
Intense crowding can result in cannibalism
How may handling lead to stress in farmed fish?
Invasive handling results in stress and poor health
How may nutrition lead to stress in farmed fish?
Nutritional deficiencies can weaken the immune system and affect development e.g. spinal deformities
How may hierarchy lead to stress in farmed fish?
If unable to form a stable social hierarchy e.g. due to frequent mixing, can result in cannibalism
How is maximum survival and maintenance of healthy fish stocks primarily achieved?
- Good husbandry and health management practices and policies
- Reduce exposure to pathogens and risk of health challenges
How can diseases be prevented in fish?
- Vaccination at early stages of development
- Medicinal treatment in some instances to maximise survival
- However for several diseases no effective vaccines are currently available
List the common salmon diseases
- Sea lice
- Pancreas Disease (PD)
- Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia (SRS)
- Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN virus)
- Heart and Skeletal Muscle inflammation (HSM)
- Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA)
- Gill Disease (GD)
Outline sea lice
- Several species
- Sea water
- Can cause lesions, secondary bacterial infections
- Controlled through good husbandry, management, use of cleaner fish
- Where necessary, licensed medicines
Outline Pancreas Disease in salmon
- Salmonid Alphavirus (present in Europe)
- Contagious
- Reduces appetite, causes muscle and pancreas lesions, lethargy, elevated mortality
- Seawater
- Affects Atlantic salmon and Rainbow trout
Outline the control of Pancreas disease
- Management and mitigation practices
- Vaccination where PD presents risk, provides some additional level of protection
Outline Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia
- Intracellular bacteria
- Mainly Chile, also Norway, Ireland, UK
- Lethargy, appetite loss, elevated mortality
Outline the control of Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia
- Vaccination
- Licensed antibiotics
Outline Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis in salmon
- Widely reported
- Contagious
- Mortality if not properly managed
- Atlantic salmon fry, smolts and larger fish post-transfer affected
Outline the control of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis
- Vaccination
- Optimise husbandry and biosecurity
- Selection of IPN resistant fish
Outline Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation in salmon
- Norway and Scotland
- Reduced appetite, abnormal behaviour
- But low mortality
- generally affects fish in first year in seawater
Outline the control of Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation
Good husbandry and management practices
Outline Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA)
- Virus
- Contagious
- Causes lethargy, anaemia and significant mortality in seawater with poor management
Outline the control of ISA
- Vaccines in high risk areas
- Culling or harvesting of affected fish
- Other biosecurity and mitigation measures
Outline Gill Disease in salmon
- Any gill condition occurring in seawater
- Changes caused by different infectious agents e.g. amoeba, virus, bacteria
- Also environmental factors e.g. algae, jelly-fish blooms
- Little known about cause and to what extend infectious or environmental factors are primary or secondary to cause of disease
List environmental impacts associated with aquaculture
- Water abstraction
- Suspended solids/organic loading
- Reduced O2
- Nitrogenous waste products
- Chemicals/drugs
- Spread of enzootic pathogens
- introduction/movement of alien species
- Genetic contamination
- Water quality and density
- Sea lice
Outline water abstraction by fish production
depending on production size and size, large proportions of water may be extracted from natural sources
Outline how fish production increases suspended solids/organic loading
Water returning to natural water systems will contain higher proportions of organic matter
Outline how fish production affects the presence of nitrogenous waste products in water
Large populations of fish can result in higher levels of nitrogen in water and eutrophication
Outline the effects of fish production on the presence of chemicals/drugs in water
Residues of drugs/chemicals used in fish farming could be present in water ad contaminate the environment
Outline how fish production may lead to the spread of enzootic pathogens
- Possibility that having increased fish population in area may favour the spread of enzootic diseases
- No strong evidence supporting this except for sea lice
Outline the effects of fish production with regards to alien species
- Large scale movement of animals between countries into non-native area
- Higher risk of spreading fish diseases globally
- Introduction of new diseases
Outline the effects of fish production on genetic contamination
Evidence of reduced genetic variability in salmon due to interbreeding between farmed and wild salmon
Outline why water quality and density must be controlled in fish production
- Most important factors are dissolved oxygen (DO), dissolved solids and ammonia
- DO required to support metabolism
- Main excretory products are ammonia and CO2
- Ammonia toxic to fish
Outline how water quality is controlled in fish production
- Mechanical aerators, air lines, liquid oxygen systems to maintain DO
- Higher water temp increases metabolism and thus DO requirement and increases excretion
- pH increase leads to increase in free ammonia
- Water flow is key to reducing waste products in water (14.42-21L/min/tonne recommended)
Describe sea lice
- Lepeophtheirus salmonis
- Ubiquitous crustacean macroparasite
- Directly transmitted through planktonic larvae
- £300 million/year
- Fish farming associated with pathogen amplification
- Concerns on long and short term impacts on wild stocks as may also be pathogenic to wild fish under natural conditions
Outline the mitigation of environmental impacts of fish production
- Careful water use and controls on water discharged to inland waters
- Prevent escapees
- Appropriate pathogen control and prevention, and post-outbreak management
- Control of fish introduction (use of sterile stock - triploids)
Outline the controls on water discharged to inland waters from fish production
- Settlement statiosn to reduce organic loading
- Followed by water treatment and oxygenation
What are some environmental benefits of controlled hunting?
- Pest control (pigeons)
- Population control (deer)
What are some national economic benefits of controlled hunting?
- Shooters spend £2.5 billion each year on goods and services
- Shooting supports equivalent of 74, 000 full time jobs
What are the main products of wild game?
- Velvet antler
- Leather
- Feathers
- Meat
List the legislation that applies to all game meat
- Regulation EC 178/2002
- Regulation EC 852/2004
- Regulation EC 853/2004 section IV of annex III
- Regulation 2073/2005
What is covered by Regulation EC 178/2002?
General food law requirements, including traceability of food, feed and food producing animals
What is covered by Regulation EC 852/2004 regarding wild game?
Sets general hygiene rules applying to ALL food businesses
What is covered by Regulation EC 853/2004 regarding wild game?
- Additional hygiene rules to businesses producing food of animal origin
- Section IV of annex III covers wild game in approve game handling establishments (AGHEs)