Aquaculture industry analysis and market attractiveness of fish vaccines in India

Executive Summary: Globally, aquaculture continues to be the fastest-growing animal-derived food producing sector. It has an average annual growth rate of 8.2% between 2004 and 2009 and is expected to outpace the capture fisheries and the demand increase for fish by the human population growth. The sector is comprised of 336 species: Carp dominates the aquaculture segment in the Asia/Pacific regions while Salmonids dominates in Europe, North and South America. China is the world leader in fish production while the developing countries together contributed greater than 90% of food fish to the world. From 2004 to 2009, an increase of 38% and 53% were reported for freshwater and marine fish production respectively. Therapeutic agents and drugs are being used in disease management of farmed fish and vaccines have gained prominence as an eco-friendly alternative. The target country in this research is India where inland aquaculture production has increased substantially between 2000 and 2010 from 1.55 million tons to 3.72 million tons and is forecasted to reach between 8-10 million tons by 2020. It is also expected that a 45% and 50% increase in horizontal (expansion by land area for aquaculture) and vertical (productivity per farm site) expansion is possible to meet the demand of 8-10 million tons by 2020. Two states, namely Andhra Pradesh (AP) and West Bengal (WB), are the leaders in inland aquaculture although their average yields were still only 60-80%. Some of the reasons for the lack of success in curbing economic losses and increasing fish productivity per hectare were attributed to disease outbreaks and the lack of commercial vaccine providers in India. In order to realize the potential of increasing the profits and productivity, scholars have suggested the use of vaccines to increase the sustainability of the Indian aquaculture segment. (Continued