Health and Biosecurity

The Health and Biosecurity Programme assists members to reduce the risks of aquatic animal disease impacting the livelihoods of farmers, national economies, trade, environment and human health by:

  • Improving regional cooperation in aquatic animal health and welfare.
  • Developing and implementing national strategies on aquatic animal health.
  • Improving surveillance, reporting and response to disease emergencies.
  • Promoting harmonisation of diagnostic procedures and risk assessment.
  • Widespread promotion of better aquatic animal health management practices at the farm level.

Key activities

Key activities of the programme include:

  • Convening the annual meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health, coordinating the Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report and bringing regional issues to the attention of global standard setting bodies such as the Office International des Epizooties.
  • Establishment and expansion of a three-tier shared resource in aquatic animal health.
  • Development of farm-level health management tools for key aquaculture commodities.
  • Supporting regional disease surveillance and reporting.
  • Strengthening aquatic animal health and biosecurity in the region.
  • Facilitating harmonisation in disease diagnostic techniques.
  • Developing resource material in support of diagnosis and surveillance.

Contacts

Creative Commons Attribution.

Related

Subject tags

A collection of subject tags relating to technical matters.

In this collection

International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference, 10-13 June, Canada

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in collaboration with the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research (Memorial University) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), will be hosting the 5th International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference (IFISH 5) in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada from June 10-13, 2018. Abstracts can be submitted electronically until 31 January, 2018.

First training course on culture-based fisheries held in Nha Trang, Vietnam

The first ever Regional Training Course on Culture-based Fisheries in Inland Waters was held at Nha Trang University from 30 October to 8 November. The objective of the course was to provide participants with the skills to assist local communities to plan and manage culture-based fisheries. These practices are an example of a relatively simple and low cost technology that can deliver nutritional and economic benefits to rural communities, which often have few livelihood options.

Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report, April-June 2017

The 74th edition of the Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report contains information from 15 governments. The foreword describes an Emergency Regional Consultation for Prevention and Management of Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) in the Asia-Pacific region.

WHO: Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals. The new WHO recommendations aim to help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics that are important for human medicine by reducing their unnecessary use in animals. In some countries, approximately 80% of total consumption of medically important antibiotics is in the animal sector, largely for growth promotion in healthy animals.

Emergency Regional Consultation for Prevention and Management of Tilapia Lake Virus in the Asia-Pacific

Since 2009, tilapia aquaculture has been threatened by mass die-offs in Israel and Ecuador, which have been caused by a novel Orthomyxo-like (RNA) virus named Tilapia lake virus. This has been reported as a newly emerging virus that causes syncytial hepatitis of tilapia. An emergency regional consultation was held in Guangzhou, China from 27-28 September 2017 to discuss and plan actions on the overall prevention and management of this disease.