The U.S. farm-raised catfish industry faces serious challenges such as disease losses, competition from cheaper fish products, high feed prices, and big fish (not accepted by fish processors). Alabama ranks second in U.S. food- size catfish production . The Alabama Fish Farming Center (AFFC) diagnostic laboratory has recorded many catfish diseases in western Alabama, where most commercial catfish production is located in the state . The primary diseases resulting in significant catfish losses as reported by the AFFC include virulent Aeromonas hydrophila (vAh) , Edwardsiella ictaluri, Bolbophorus damnificus, columnaris disease, proliferative gill disease (PGD), toxic releases , and others (such as ich, water quality, bird predation). Identifying regional prevalent catfish diseases and understanding the ir economic impact on catfish production is becoming crucial. Th e objectives of this study were to determine statewide production losses caused by diseases, identify the prevalent catfish diseases affecting Alabama , and determine disease-related economic impacts. The AFFC conducted annual surveys of all commercial catfish producers in Alabama during 2015–2021 by mail and/or telephone interviews to achieve these objectives.
The annual number of survey respondents ranged from 66–74, with a total of 418 respondents (55.3% by phone, 44.5% by mail, and 0.2% by email). The annual survey response rate ranged between 95.6% and 100% (mean ± SE = 98.1 ± 0.6%). Reported catfish production area ranged from 6,534–7,006 ( 6,897 ± 73.1) ha/year. The overall rate of fish deaths caused by diseases was 440.52 kg/ha (Fig. 1A) . The highest statewide d isease losses in metric tonnes (MT) were caused by vAh (1,447 .5 ± 58.1 MT/year), followed by columnaris disease ( 812.6 ± 84.2 MT/year) , followed by Edwardsiella ( 217.5 ± 16. 9 MT/year). The annual rate of total economic impacts ranged between 959.1– 2,660.4 (1,855.8 ± 228.5) $/ha — 58% of which was due to diseases (Fig. 2A).