Disease and parasitism cause major welfare, environmental and economic concerns for global aquaculture. In this review, we examine the status and potential of technologies that exploit genetic variation in host resistance to tackle this problem. We argue that there is an urgent need to improve understanding of the genetic mechanisms involved, leading to the development of tools that can be applied to boost host resistance and...

The potential of selection to improve resistance to streptococcosis was evaluated in a commercial population of Nile tilapia in Thailand. The base generation (G0) consisted of offspring from 98 sires and 149 dams using a partly nested design. At 60 days post‐hatch, 30 fish from each family were injected intraperitoneally with a Streptococcosis agalactiae solution (1 × 10 9 CFU/ml) and evaluated for 14 days. Disease resistance...

The aquaculture sector is significantly behind plant and farm animal production in applying selective breeding, in spite of the fact that it has been suggested that the world aquaculture production could be doubled in 13 years if breeding programmes were supplying stocks for the farmed species. It is estimated that as late as in 2010, only 8.2% of the world's total aquaculture production was based on material developed in sele...

The shrimp industry is now largely based on Litopenaeus vannamei . Current strategies for disease management in Asia emphasizing exclusion and eradication with strict quarantine and importation protocols have not been effective in controlling disease epidemics. New diseases have been introduced on illegal importations; commercial shrimp populations are derived from imported SPF stocks susceptible to endemic diseases; and local...