As the world’s population grows, demands for increased food production expand and leads to finding alternative, sustainable, and reliable methods to provide food. In this context, the idea of aquaponic production was introduced by aquaculture research community in the mid-1970. An aquaponic system represents the perfect integration of aquaculture and hydroponics. However, little research has been conducted on commercial-scale aquaponics production especially from the sanitary point of view. Disease outbreak can compromise the harvest and resulting as a limiting factor, leading to the end of an operation .
Aquaponics combines the hydroponic production of plants and the aquaculture production of fish. Over the last years has gained increased interest due to its sustainability . Several fish species i.e., tilapia, goldfish, carp, koi, catfish, and barramundi are commonly used due to their features for aquaponic production of a wide range of edible plants. The selection of plant and fish species is a key point for aquaponics production. To note, there are inherent issues that need to be assessed in the near future. Water quality has a key role in this kind of systems and should be balanced in base of the needs of fish, plants, and bacteria. The asset of physicochemical water parameters (e.g., temperature, dissolved oxygen, ammonia ) should be constantly monitored and balanced between the fish, plants, and bacteria . One of the main challenges to a successful aquaponics operation is related with disease prevention and control, thus pathogens can affect both fish and plants. Since recycling water is a perfect environment for pathogen amplification, a disease outbreak can compromise an entire crop and lead to the end of an operation. Generally, a quaponic systems are not compatible with the use of chemicals compounds both for fish disease and plant treatment. A ntibiotics and antiparasitic products may affect the biofilter activity and plant survivor. Moreover, medicines used for treating fish diseases and pesticides cannot be used, cause plants and fish may absorb and accumulate them. To prevent or manage the impact of a certain disease, water disinfection can reduce or eliminate pathogens, however disinfection methods, can harm the health of the fish or plants; thus, they must be used carefully. The risk of pathogen introduction in an aquaponic system is very limited and generally linked to the introduction of infected fish. Pathogens are also introduced through further pathways as: make-up water, air, animal vectors, feed, dirty equipment and via staff or visitors . In literature there was only few studies that describe the occurrence of pathogens in aquaponics production. On the other hands, according to our recent studies, sanitary problems are frequently caused by bacteria and parasites. Among parasites species , Ichtyophtirius multifils , Hexamita sp., Gyrodactylus sp. and Dactylogyrus sp. are the most impactful. The expansion of aquaponics production all over the world highlight the need to elaborate sanitary methods and adequate protocols to prevent and control disease outbreak in this kind of aquaculture production.