A Systematic Review of Studies Investigating the Transmission Dynamics of Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus

Abstract

Infectious salmon anemia is one of the most important viral diseases affecting the farmed Atlantic salmon industry. The objectives of this systematic review were to appraise the methods, parameters, and validation approaches employed in mathematical modeling studies related to infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) transmission dynamics, identify limitations among them, and suggest recommendations for future modeling approaches. A total of 898 studies were identified through the search of four databases and Google Scholar, and five government reports were added to this list after manually checking the reference list of full‐text articles. After removal of duplicate studies, title and abstract screening, and full‐text screening, 24 studies were finally included in the systematic review. The included studies mostly used mechanistic models ( n = 16), followed by hybrid models ( n = 5); only three studies used statistical models. We categorized the objectives of the modeling studies into four categories: prediction of ISAV spread, model parameterization, persistence of ISAV, and effectiveness of control interventions. Most studies tried to predict ISAV spread and estimate model parameters. Our review identified several limitations in existing models, including a lack of calibration and validation with real‐world data, reliance on deterministic frameworks, inconsistent use of compartment structures, and failure to incorporate many key ISAV transmission pathways. Existing modeling studies have substantially advanced our understanding of ISAV spread and informed control strategies. Future research should aim to overcome current limitations by estimating key transmission parameters, such as the basic reproduction number ( R 0 ) across seasons and viral genotypes, and by incorporating stochastic modeling approaches.

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