A Modelling Approach to Estimate the Economic Benefits of Intervention for Disease in Aquaculture

• Main Authors: Murray, Alexander G., Hall, Malcolm
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English; unknown
• Subjects: Aquaculture > Economic aspects; Seafood industry > Congresses; Fishery management > Congresses; Seafood > Marketing; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/9k41zg585

A quarter of biomass losses in Scottish marine Atlantic salmon aquaculture are attributable to infectious disease. Interventions to reduce the consequences of disease include the use of disease-resistant stock, vaccines and other authorised medicines, functional feeds, and modified farm management strategies. There are, however, only a few evaluations of the economic benefit of intervention for diseases in an aquaculture context and even fewer comparisons between interventions. It is likely that a lack of good quality data is, at least in part, responsible for this. We present a simple modelling framework which generates indicative estimates of the economic effectiveness of intervention for specific diseases. Model parameters include production losses such as increased mortality, reimbursement from insurance, the cost of intervention, and the risk of disease. The model is seeded with field-trial information and this is used to infer the economic effectiveness of interventions for various intervention efficacies for various pathogen virulences. Results are expressed as a simple metric, the underlying risk of a farm-site contracting the disease at which the intervention becomes economically beneficial. The model is applied to Pancreas Disease in farmed Atlantic salmon, occurring in north European marine Atlantic salmon farm-sites and associated with a substantial economic losses. The results confirm that vaccination for this disease is, at least for the more virulent strains of the causative pathogen, economically beneficial. The model also generates hypotheses regarding the cost-effectiveness for other virulence and intervention scenarios. The application of this model as a tool for other diseases is also alluded to. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.