Exploring Challenges of Fisheries in Himalayan States and Therapeutic Potential of Fish Antimicrobial Peptides

Abstract

Total fisheries and aquaculture production (excluding algae) has increased significantly over the last seven decades, rising from 19 million tonnes (live weight equivalent) in 1950 to an all-time high of around 179 million tonnes in 2018, with a 3.3 percent annual growth rate. Production then fell slightly in 2019 (a 1% decrease compared to 2018), before increasing by only 0.2 percent to 178 million tonnes in 2020. The fisheries sector is critical to the Indian economy. India is now the third-largest producer of fish and the fourth-largest exporter of fish and fisheries products. The fishery potential in Himalayan region is still unexplored because in most of the IHR region, there are several fresh water resources but most of these states do not share top position in terms of fish farming or aquaculture. Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh is nowhere in the list of fish production despite being the state that has best fresh water resources and trout fisheries could be the forte of hilly areas. The Government know about it and that is why the fish seeds and ovas are imports and with the import challenges come in terms of pathogenesis and water quality. There have been several cases of importing the trout eggs from other countries, then the hatched fishes have been introduced at different locations. As demands increasing our dependence of fish import is also increasing. We have to take extra precautionary measures while importing the eggs of fishes, as these diseases like IPNV are already reported in foreign countries and cause huge loss to the salmon industries. newlineIn fish farming, it is very important to diagnose a disease very fast and or isolate infected individuals. A disease outbreak occurred in Dhamwari Trout farm and a very high mortality rate of about 90% was observed in fish fry, yearlings, two-year-old fingerlings, and brooders respectively. The symptoms of the disease typically matched that of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus (IPNV) but IPNV has not been reported in India so far. Hence it was even more