Risk analysis in aquatic animal health

Animal health risk analysis is the systematic approach to identifying what could go wrong in any procedure involving animals, assessing the likelihood and consequences of that event occurring and formulating measures to manage that risk. An important component throughout the process is risk communication. The formal to manage that risk analysis to aquatic animal health issues is relatively new and adequately documented examples are few. There is an urgent need for the accumulation of a body of peer-reviewed literature on the application on risk analysis to animal health problems. Nonetheless, lessons can be drawn from those cases where risk analysis has been applied to aquatic animal health issues, and from the broader animal health field. In the animal health field, as in other areas, it has become apparent that risk analysis is a complex discipline and assessments often do not stand up well in an adversarial climate, such as that which frequently surrounds trade proposals. Opposition to importation of commodities is often phrased in terms of concern over disease but may be based more on other, usually unstated, fears. Even in situations where risk can be quantified relatively objectively it may be difficult to attain agreement on what constitutes an acceptable risk.