Shellfish Breeding and Hatchery Management (2+1)

25.2.1 Need for Disinfection in Hatcheries

During the routine operation of hatchery, many pathogenic microbes may accumulate in the equipment and components of hatchery system. When there is any drastic change in water quality favouring the microbes, it will enhance in number and prone to cause disease to culture organisms. The best method to avoid the infection is the breaking the life cycle or continuity of such pathogens in the hatchery. For this the hatchery should be disinfected and shutdown between production cycles so that the pathogens will have no host to infect and will get eliminated from the system. This is to ensure non-settlement of microbes in the system.

Disinfection has widespread application as a method of sanitation, to eliminate or suppress the presence of the initial infective unit that is the pathogens. Therefore disinfection has to be done in all possible ways to completely avoid the infection. In this process a variety of hatchery system components are to be subject to disinfection, like equipment such as pipes, tanks, bio-filters, nets, floor, boots, culture water, input water, food, stock and air, output of effluent, debris and dead fish, etc.