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

Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report, October-December 2005

This report, the 30th in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of sixteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses capacity building and harmonisation in aquatic animal health within ASEAN.

Aquaculture Asia Magazine, October-December 2005

In this issue:

Small-scale pond culture in Bangladesh. Issues and challenges in community-based aquaculture. Aquaculture as an action programme building confidence and self-worth. Transforming policy recommendations into pro-poor service provision. Grow out of spotted Babylon to marketable size in polyculture with seabass. Influence of economic conditions and global shocks on grouper markets. Status of cobia hatchery technology in Vietnam. Organic shrimp raceway system. Macrobrachium rosenbergii in Vembanad Lake. Management of monogenean parasites.

Putting principles into practice: A Vietnamese experience on better management practices implementation

This presentation provides an overview of Vietnamese experience on the implementation of better management Practices (BMPs) and good aquaculture practices (GAP) in shrimp aquaculture. Practices were implemented collectively by encouraging small-scale farmers to form groups that collaborate on issues such as screening seed for disease and improving water quality management. Improvements to crop outcomes were observed. The results presented include the profitability of BMP adopted ponds.

Grouper iridoviral disease: Disease card

Recognising the importance of iridoviral disease, in terms of its potential to spread and cause economic loss, grouper iridoviral disease was included for listing in the quarterly aquatic animal disease (QAAD) list under any other diseases of importance effective for reporting from first quarter of 2003. This disease card is developed to provide information to national authorities and support the regional NACA/FAO/OIE QAAD reporting system.

Shrimp aquaculture in Africa and the Middle East: The current reality and trends for the future

This case study reviews shrimp aquaculture development in East Africa and the Middle East, as well as the problems and prospects for future development. Given that shrimp aquaculture development has not yet occurred on any significant scale, although increasing, it should be possible to learn the lessons from other parts of the world and apply them in these contexts. The countries in this report are: Egypt, Iran, Mozambique, Madagascar with some information on other countries in both regions.