Applications and needs of fish and shellfish cell culture for disease control in aquaculture

Abstract

This review focuses on the application of cellculture and in vitro methods to addresssome of the key elements identified asstrategies for integrated health management inaquaculture, including the standardization andvalidation of diagnostic methods, thedevelopment of new safe therapeutants, and theimplementation of effective disease controlmethodologies. It is expected that anylong-term rise in seafood production willdepend on the future progress of aquaculture.However, the development of aquaculture faces anumber of problems, of which diseases –particularly the emergence of new pathogens –represent serious risks for the production ofaquatic animals, but also for the health offish farmers and of the consumers ofaquaculture products. The complex interactionsunderlying disease outbreak and progression maybe better studied using in vitro modelsthat use cell/tissue culture methods andexperimental systems, in which the interactionsbetween aggressors and the host can bedissected. Researchers have developed invitro assays for fish toxicological,pathological, and immunological studies, as thein vitro assays allow higher control ofthe conditions of the experiments. Thecombination of cell/tissue cultures and invitro assays reduces also the variability ofthe in vivo responses, which are due tothe unavoidable effects of stress and ofenvironmental influences, and to the disparategenetic backgrounds of farmed fish andshellfish species.