Environmental Engineering Reference
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Latin America as well as to Asia (Iizuka, 2004). Therefore, exports to these markets are
expected to grow relatively faster in the following years than the established markets in
Japan and USA (Table 3).
Year
1999
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
USD (million)
Japan 471 638 704 648 713 824 921
USA 259 606 792 862 795 554 466
EU 34 236 308 279 284 162 73
Latin America 39 88 156 202 268 290 357
Other (Asia) 15 153 246 250 333 270 314
Table 3. Main market shares of Chilean salmon aquaculture from year 1999 to 2010 (USD
million). Source: TechnoPress, 2010.
2.5 Production cost of Chilean salmon aquaculture
The production cost of salmonids in Chile has been low in relation to other salmonid-
producing countries (Figure 6). Lower costs for labour force and lower prices for feed
ingredients have been the major factors for the cost advantage in Chile. Historically, Chilean
feed producers could pay significant lower prices for fishmeal and fish oil in South America
than producers in the Northern Hemisphere. However, with increasing fishmeal and fishoil
prices, improving life standards and education the Chilean cost advantages may be reduced
significantly in the future. Furthermore, the production cost will considerably increase
because the new enforcements of the regulation from the year 2011.
3. Diseases in salmon farming in Chile
Unfortunately, in Chile the advantage of a disease-free environment for farmed fish has
been gradually lost the past two decades. This situation is acknowledged and majorly
explained by the introduction of exotic pathogens, mainly through imported eggs (Smith et
al., 2001; Claude et al., 2000). Chile has imported more than 1,900 million eggs over the years
from various countries and continents of the Northern hemisphere, Figure 2. It is known
that when moving fish or their gametes, their pathogens are moved along with them.
Notwithstanding, in the case of some diseases in salmon farming in Chile, a relatively
opposite phenomenon could have been possible, namely that some unknown etiologic
agents could be endemic in native species without causing apparent damage and have
adapted to it. On the other hand, non-native fish species such as salmonids would not have
a proper genetic makeup or effective defence mechanisms against these new organisms,
presenting a diminished health status with consequent outbreaks. Intensive systems used in
aquaculture i.e. huge biomass grown along with high densities of fish per unit of water
volume, have contributed to increase the prevalence of pathogens and to increase contact
rates with hosts, all of which translates into a higher risk of disease.
3.1 Time-course of disease emergence
The appearance of important diseases posing a risk to the salmon industry in Chile has been
related directly to the increase in production (Figure 7), where volumes went from
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