Immunity of Aquaculture Species and Vaccine Development

Dear Colleagues,

The culture of aquatic animals has been practiced through the ages, with records dating back to 1000 BCE in China. Oyster farming was also a common practice in Ancient Rome. Ever since, communities around the world have farmed aquatic species, in one form or another, for food reliance. With the increase in human population, the advent of modern economies, and the drive for higher productivity, aquaculture enterprises veered towards high-density production, which eventually led to disease outbreaks inflicting significant financial losses to growers and the aquaculture industry. As part of management strategies to mitigate disease problems, vaccines have been developed for aquatic species such as fish, relying on knowledge and technologies obtained from mammal vaccinology practices. Therefore, knowledge gaps remain in the understanding of aquatic species immunity. In addition, molluscs and crustaceans, being of distant lineages to mammals, do not possess an adaptive immune system identical to their mammalian counterparts. To date, some vaccines developed against finfish pathogens have been highly efficacious, and in the last few years RNAi studies have shown that molluscs and crustaceans present innate immunity mechanisms that can provide some level of protection against recurrent viral infection. The aim of this Special Issue is to gather the latest information on modern vaccine development and the use of cutting-edge technologies employed to decipher the immune mechanisms of cultured aquatic species.

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• vaccine
• aquaculture
• finfish
• molluscs
• crustaceans
• immunity
• RNAi