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What are BMPs?Better Management Practices (BMPs) in the aquaculture context outline norms for responsible farming of aquaticanimals. In aquaculture, better management practices have been developed largely for shrimp and salmonaquaculture, although some efforts are presently being made to develop BMPs for other aquatic commodities (e.g.tilapias, catfish, molluscs, eels). In shrimp aquaculture, the experience of the Consortium(FAO/NACA/UNEP/WB/WWF. 2006. International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming) shows that welldesigned BMPs can support producers to (a) increase efficiency and productivity by reducing the risk of shrimphealth problems, (b) reduce or mitigate the impacts of farming on the environment, (c) improve food safety andquality of shrimp farm product, and (d) improve the social benefits from shrimp farming and its social acceptabilityand sustainability.BMPs can be country specific, or developed for a particular location, taking into account of local farming systems,social and economic context, markets and environments. BMPs are often voluntary practices, but can also beused as basis for local regulations, or even certification programmes. It was suggested that these could alsoprovide the basis for the voluntary and market-driven certification schemes.In summary, BMPs improve the quantity, safety and quality of products taking into consideration animal health andwelfare, food safety, environmental and socio-economical sustainability. BMP’s are management practices, andimplementation is generally voluntary; they are not a standard for certification. However, implementation of BMPswill help to achieve compliance with standards set by international agencies, certification bodies and tradingpartners. It is expected that organization of farmers and the introduction of BMP approaches to their farmingactivities would be an important tool in enabling smaller-scale producers to enter certification systems.How to develop BMPs?BMPs are not only commodity specific but also location specific. It is generally agreed that for all culturedcommodities it is necessary to underpin the general principles for responsible farming that would coverenvironmental, social, ethical, food safety and husbandry issues. The first step in developing BMPs is gaining indepth understanding of the culture system and cultured species. This should be done at the population level andnot in one or two ponds. Population based approaches to understand the problems and issues facing a culturedcommodity in a specific farming area are gaining importance. Epidemiological studies (population based studies)help to identify variables that are associated with good (e.g. higher production, less disease, less environmentaldamage) and bad outcomes in a culture system for a particular commodity. Factors associated with badoutcomes are normally called as risk factors. Interventions developed to address the identified risk factors can bereferred to as better management practices.What is Epidemiology (Population based approach)?In order to understand population based approach, it is necessary to understand some simple concepts inepidemiology. Epidemiology is population medicine. For the epidemiologist, the population is the patient.Epidemiology is the study of disease in population in its natural setting. All epidemiological studies are field based.In aquatic epidemiology, aquaculture ponds serve as the laboratory. This can be a great advantage overlaboratory studies, which may not be easily extrapolated to field conditions.Cause from an epidemiological perspective is interpreted in quite a wide sense. This is somewhat different to themore traditional view of the role of cause being restricted to etiological agents. An epidemiological definition of acause of a disease is "an event, condition or characteristic that plays an essential role in producing an occurrenceof the disease". Epidemiologists avoid defining the word cause for any disease outbreak, but prefer to use words75