The Japanese eel culture industry has passed a century in its history. Over the years, the industry innovated its culture methods and techniques several times to improve productivity. There had been several occurrences of diseases that produced serious damages to eel production. Some of the diseases occurred with the changes in feed and/or environmental conditions, which were related to the innovations of the culture methods and techniques.
Today, when the strength of the Japanese eel culture industry seems over, it may be appropriate to review the relationship between the occurrence of diseases and culture innovations. We report here the essential points of the review.