The Oxford English Dictionary defines agriculture as “The science and art of cultivating the soil; including the allied pursuits of gathering in the crops and rearing live stock”. Modifying the OED definition by replacing “soil” with “Earth's surface” makes aquatic agriculture—or in shorthand “aquaculture”, the fastest growing sector of agriculture (FAO, 2002).Acharacteristic that sets the aquaculture industry apart from terrestrial livestock production is the rearing of species that are also natural resources. Although the spread of a terrestrial livestock pathogen serves as a primary concern to the livestock industry, dissemination of an aquaculture pathogen concerns commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, and a wider environmental community. Aconverse concern is also felt by the aquaculture community; pathogens in natural populations may spread more easily into the aquaculture industry because of the shared host species.
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© 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc
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Lotz, J.M., Overstreet, R.M., Grimes, D.J. (2005). Aquaculture and Animal Pathogens in the Marine Environment with Emphasis on Marine Shrimp Viruses. In: Belkin, S., Colwell, R.R. (eds) Oceans and Health: Pathogens in the Marine Environment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23709-7_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23709-7_19
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