Preventing and mitigating farmed bivalve disease: a Northern Ireland case study
Date
2020-08-26
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Publisher
Springer
Abstract
Shellfish production forms a large proportion of marine aquaculture production in
Northern Ireland (NI). Diseases represent a serious threat to the maintenance and
growth of shellfish cultivation with severe consequences to production output and
profitability. In Northern Ireland, production generally benefits from a good
health status with the absence of notifiable diseases, except for localised cases
of Bonamia ostreae, Marteilia refringens and ostreid herpes virus. In this paper,
we qualitatively explore that the prevalence, risk, impact, mitigation and experience
shellfish farmers in this region have in relation to disease. Sixteen semistructured
interviews were conducted with stakeholders within the sector. The
interviews were transcribed verbatim, and Nvivo 12 was used to facilitate an
inductive thematic analysis. Our results highlighted that the industry has varying
attitudes and experiences with disease. At present-day temperatures, disease is not
an issue and this provides vast market opportunities for the region. However,
disease outbreaks have led to detrimental consequences to financial income,
production output and reputation in the past, whilst control and mitigation remain
reactive. It is imperative proactive disease prevention and control that are
employed and enforced to sustain NI’s reputation as a healthy shellfish region,
particularly under increasing global temperatures and intensified production systems.
A cultural shift to disease appreciation, risk analysis and surveillance
through research, education, training and collaboration is essential. This study
highlights the importance of providing a bottom-up communication platform with
the stakeholders directly involved in shellfish culture and management, the value
of cross sector engagement and the need to improve knowledge transfer between
science the sector.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 13 August 2020; Published online - 26 August 2020.
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Article
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Keywords
Aquaculture, Bivalve mollusc, Disease, Farmer’s perspective, Qualitative
Citation
Fox, M., Christley, R., Lupo, C., Moore, H., Service, M. and Campbell, K. (2020) ‘Preventing and mitigating farmed bivalve disease: a Northern Ireland case study’, Aquaculture International. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi: 10.1007/s10499-020-00597-y.