Fish Diseases and Management

7.3.1.Principles and methods of vaccine production and fish immunization

Of the many prophylactics available, vaccines are the ideal measure for any disease control. Vaccines are available for many fish diseases especially in the west while in India many vaccine research works have not given rise to commercial vaccine production. Vaccines reduce disease impact, decrease the need for drugs, offer long term protection and provide fixed cost towards disease prevention expenditure. Initial vaccines were prepared as bacterins (cells or antigen killed by heat or mostly by formalin). New and improved vaccines are being tried in aquaculture, which are efficient and protective at experimental levels. Vaccination is better in many ways to chemotherapy, which has several disadvantages