PROTECTING FARMED FISH

Protecting farmed fish: Why aquatic animal health is a top industry priority. The practice of aquaculture around the globe has developed from merely being a supplementary industry to capture fishing to supplying over half of the total volume of fish consumed globally, putting animal health at the very heart of the future of the industry. With increasing intensity and expansion into new territories and species, the technology required to keep the animals healthy is no longer a peripheral concern. They are fast becoming one of the industry’s most closely watched growth markets.

A Market Expanding Alongside Production Itself

According to Market Intelo, the global market for aquaculture health was valued at $2.8 billion in 2025 and forecast to be worth $5.3 billion in 2034 at a CAGR of 7.2%. This trajectory follows a path that very much mimics the development of aquaculture as an industry, which rose from 17.5 million tonnes of production in 2000 to around 101 million tonnes currently and estimated to reach between 145 and 160 million tonnes by 2034 as it takes a more significant role in providing seafood for the world. Each and every extra tonne of farmed seafood entails a greater need for vaccines, diagnostic tools, medicines, and water quality solutions.

Diseases Continue to be the Most Expensive Liability in the Industry

As expected, disease control is the biggest contributor to the market’s revenue, representing slightly more than half of the total expenses. The pathogens that have viral causes, including infectious salmon anaemia and infectious pancreatic necrosis, have been attributed to losses totalling over $1 billion per year in the affected areas of salmon farming, whereas shrimpers are struggling with a White Spot Syndrome Virus, responsible for several billion dollars’ worth of losses annually. An outbreak of disease on one salmon farm can lead to loss of millions of dollars of stock and destocking expenses at once, which explains why companies now view their health investments as insurance rather than an additional expenditure. Salmon farms implementing systematic monitoring and preventive programs are experiencing much better results regarding profitability compared to those dealing with diseases reactively.

Regulation Is Reshaping What “Health Management” Means

Antimicrobial resistance has become as much a driver of change as disease itself. The development of resistance to antibiotics has become a key factor in driving change as significant as the diseases themselves. Aquaculture reportedly comprises an enormous percentage of antimicrobial usage among livestock, which has forced regulatory agencies within the EU, the US and most Southeast Asian countries, key producers of aquacultural products, to tighten regulations regarding antibiotic usage and adopt a disease prevention regime that is scientifically supported. This is encouraging more focus on preventive rather than reactionary measures involving vaccination, probiotics, immunization through additives and rapid diagnosis in order to detect any emerging issue. This trend is being supported further by retailers and certification bodies with programs like Aquaculture Stewardship Council increasingly demanding proof of disease records.

Vaccines and Diagnostics Are the Fastest-Growing Segments

While the pharmaceuticals segment dominates the aquaculture products market, accounting for almost 38% of the market, it is the vaccines and diagnostics segments that are growing the fastest, by almost 9% per annum. Vaccine uptake is being helped along by oral and immersion delivery methods that avoid the labour and stress of individual injections, useful in an industry where handling fish or shrimp at scale is itself a welfare and cost issue. On the diagnostics side, molecular testing that once took days and cost upwards of $40 a sample can now return results in hours for a fraction of that price, letting farmers make treatment decisions almost in real time rather than waiting on a distant laboratory.

Fish Lead, but Shrimp Are Catching Up Fast

By species, finfish account for the largest portion of health spending, driven by intensive salmon, trout, tilapia and carp production. Shrimp farming is not far behind, and its disease exposure, from White Spot to Early Mortality Syndrome, means health product adoption is growing quickly across the major shrimp-producing nations of Asia and Latin America. Mollusc farming remains the smallest segment by comparison, having traditionally relied on environmental management rather than active treatment, though rising disease pressure is slowly changing that too.

Asia Pacific Leads, but Growth Is Widening Its Reach

Asia Pacific commands more than half of total expenditures on fish health worldwide, due to the large scale of production from China, Vietnam, India and Indonesia. Together, Europe and North America make up a smaller but important market segment, driven largely by the cost of sea lice management in Norwegian, Scottish and Faroese salmon farming operations, which can be responsible for as much as a fourth of total production costs. Latin America and Africa are smaller markets at the moment, but both regions are growing rapidly thanks to shrimp farming in Ecuador and Brazil, as well as government support for new aquaculture facilities elsewhere in response to increased protein demand.

An Industry of Consolidation that Still Needs Innovative Inputs

Consolidation is the key word as players like Zoetis, Merck Animal Health and Elanco compete with established brands along with feed industry heavyweights Skretting, Biomar and Cargill Aqua Nutrition to develop health ingredients for their commercial feed. There are consolidation deals taking place as companies that specialize in aquaculture health get acquired by large companies to increase their product line up and presence in new geographies, but the space is also ready for start-ups that can develop products that do away with antibiotics and use digital platforms for health.

A Priority That Isn’t Going Away

With increasing worldwide demand for seafood, limited scope for further increase in wild capture, and stricter regulations regarding the management of diseases, aquatic animal health has gone from being an esoteric consideration to one of prime importance in the industry. The message for producers could not be clearer – healthy stock means a successful business, and those companies that put their money on the table now in terms of prevention stand the best chance of surviving the next epidemic, regulation, and evolution of the industry.

Reference: https://marketintelo.com/report/aquaculture-health-market

Image: Market Intelo