Poverty alleviation through prevention and future control of the two major socioeconomically-important pathogens in Asian aquaculture.

最近的估计预测，到2050年，全球人口将增至约90亿。在这种增长中，预计大部分将发生在非洲、中东和整个亚洲。随着可用于农业的土地变得有限，随着野生鱼类种群的枯竭，必须可持续地提高水产养殖产量，以确保全球粮食安全和减轻全人类的贫困。传染病暴发是水产养殖业可持续发展的关键限制因素。许多疾病存在于野生种群中，但只有当作物物种保持在高密度和压力条件下时，才会出现问题。这些情况通常与水产养殖有关。人们试图通过开发疫苗或预防性治疗来预防疾病或“增强”宿主免疫系统，以应对疾病的挑战。不幸的是，在亚洲的许多情况下，这些策略都失败了；事实证明，疫苗无效、过于昂贵，或者在农场规模上接种是不现实的。免疫兴奋剂和益生菌往往不能在贝类中提供一致或持续的保护。我们认为，必须从根本上重新考虑疾病预防的方法。我们确实承认，仅靠调节文化环境将不足以减少所有未来疾病的影响。我们还主张继续发展对宿主-病原体相互作用的基本原理的新理解。这些知识将确定未来可以利用的病原体感染途径，从而开发出更普遍和更具成本效益的控制方法。我们将量化亚洲水产养殖的两种关键疾病的社会经济影响。这将为实验的设计提供信息，以量化池塘环境(例如：温度、盐度、饮食等)在调节传染病暴发发生方面的作用。产出将用于向低收入国家(LIC)的农民推荐新的最佳管理做法。通过协作参与，这些新的BMP将在孟加拉国和印度的农业社区内开发，以确保其有效性。拟议的方法对在土地和社区服务中心工作的农民来说是一个在经济上更现实的选择，并将为通过将风险降至最低而实现脱贫迈出第一步。我们相信，提高控制环境质量以最大限度地减少疾病的意识，有可能产生非常显著的短期积极影响。同时，我们将使用最新的分子方法，对这些疾病中宿主与病原体的相互作用产生严格的新理解，并在未来的项目中利用这些知识来确定新的普遍和可持续的干预方法，并用于高健康作物的遗传改良计划。我们研究的目标类似于目前孟加拉国和印度最具社会经济破坏性的疾病：由白斑综合症病毒(WSSV)引起的对虾白斑病(WSD)，以及感染类真菌侵袭性无头孢子菌(以前称为流行性溃疡综合征(EUS))，导致养殖的鱼类，特别是大型鲤鱼大规模死亡。因此，在孟加拉国和其他小岛屿发展中国家的农场条件下最大限度地减少这些疾病暴发的风险是至关重要的短期优先事项。因此，我们提出，有一个基本和迫切的要求，以优化新的方法，以良好的BMP。我们的三方联合体将促进专业知识和想法的真正交流，并将在所介绍的三个国家建设科学和水产养殖能力。我们真诚地相信，我们的合作将支持水产养殖业的可持续发展，并通过全面了解健康和有弹性的水产养殖作物和养殖系统的重要性来减轻贫困。

Recent estimates predict that the global population will rise to ~ 9 bn by 2050. Of that growth, the majority is predicted to take place within Africa, the Middle East and throughout Asia. As the available land for agriculture becomes limited and as wild fish stocks become depleted, it is essential that aquaculture production is sustainably enhanced to ensure global food security and poverty alleviation for all human kind. Infectious disease outbreaks are the key limiting factor to the sustainable expansion of the aquaculture industry. Many diseases exist in wild populations but only become problematic when crop species are held at high densities and under stressful conditions. These conditions are often associated with aquaculture. Attempts have been made to meet the challenge of disease by developing vaccines or prophylactic treatments to prevent disease or 'boost' the host immune system. Unfortunately, in the many cases in Asia these strategies have failed; vaccines have proved ineffective, too expensive, or are unrealistic to administer at farm scale. Immune stimulants and probiotics have often failed to provide consistent or sustained protection in shellfish. We argue that the approach to disease prevention must be radically rethought.We do concede that regulating the culture environment alone will be insufficient to reduce the impact of all future diseases. We also advocate the continued development of novel understanding of the fundamentals of host-pathogen interactions. This knowledge will identify pathways of pathogen infection that could be exploited in the future leading to the development of more universal and cost-effective control methods.We will quantify the socioeconomic impact of two key diseases of Asian aquaculture. This will inform the design of experiments to quantify the role of the pond environment (e.g.: temperature, salinity, diet, etc) in regulating the occurrence of infectious outbreaks. Outputs will be used to recommend novel Best Management Practice (BMP) for farmers in Low Income Countries (LICs). Through collaborative engagement, these new BMPs will be developed within the farming communities in Bangladesh and India to ensure their efficacy. The proposed approach represents a more economically realistic option for farmers working in LICs and will provide a first step towards poverty alleviation through minimising risk. We believe that this raised awareness of controlling environment quality to minimise disease has the potential to generate highly significant short term positive impacts.Simultaneously, we will use state of the art molecular methods to develop rigorous new understanding of the host-pathogen interactions in these diseases and use that knowledge in future projects to identify novel universal and sustainable intervention methods and for genetic improvement programmes for high health crops.Likely targets for our research are the current most socioeconomically devastating diseases in Bangladesh and India: White Spot Disease (WSD) of shrimp, which is caused by White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), and infection with the fungus-like oomycete Aphanomyces invadans (previously Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS)) causing large-scale mortalities of farmed fish, especially major carps. Minimising the risk of these disease outbreaks under farm conditions in Bangladesh and other LICs is thus a vital short term priority. We therefore propose that there is an essential and urgent requirement to optimise novel approaches to good BMP. Our trilateral consortium will facilitate real cross fertilization of expertise and ideas and will build scientific and aquaculture capacity in the three countries presented. We genuinely believe that our collaboration will support the sustainable enhancement of the aquaculture industry and alleviate poverty by developing a holistic view of the importance of a healthy and resilient aquaculture crop and culture system.