Diseases

Abstract

[Extract] To put the impact of disease into perspective, it is interesting to evaluate the future of the human face and its needs. It has been estimated that for humankind to maintain its consumption of seafood at c urrent levels, aquaculture production will have to double by 2020. There probably is not enough land or suitable mari time areas for this to occur without massive disnlptions to multiple ecosystems. However, 40% of all aquaculture production is lost to disease, so by just removing or limiting disease impacts, humankind can almost meet seafood requirements without changing any land-utilising practices.