Risk assessments have a practical application in developing a production medicine plan for fish farms. There has been limited discussion advising practitioners how to use risk assessments to build their fish medicine practice services.
We are finding new fish pathogens, but what is the significance of these findings? Fish farmers want to know whether to worry about these newly discovered organisms. How do we prioritize pathogens? What should a practitioner know about risk assessments? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this presentation. Risk analysis involves risk identification, risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. This presentation will present risk assessments in a practical easily replicated manner for practitioners and attempt to provide options for responding to the questions above. Risk assessment discussions can help focus the conversation with fish farmers on the most important issues on their farm.
Examples of how risk assessments have been applied in regulatory realm will be presented along with non-regulatory cases demonstrating how being well versed in risk can aid your fish farm clients. Known regulatory fish pathogens include: Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, Tilapia Lake Virus, and Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis among many others. Our view of risk changes with time. Several years ago, Largemouth Bass Virus was viewed as a great risk to largemouth bass. Now the concern is generally less. Supposedly it has been freely spread throughout the U.S., yet it has not been associated with declines of largemouth bass. Heterosporis was also a big concern and similarly became less of a concern. We will use these and other examples to demonstrate how to assess risk. What constitutes severe fish diseases? We will discuss potential zoonotic concerns, economic impact, and environmental harm, among other considerations.
Fish farmers vary greatly in the level of concern about introducing a fish pathogen to their farms. Some are extremely cautious and other are unconvinced of the risks. What is the likelihood that a currently unknown pathogen will appear and cause severe disease? How should we put that in perspective for our fish farm clients? These issues will be discussed, and the author will highlight that risk assessment discussions are a great opportunity to demonstrate the value of the fish veterinarian to fish farms.