In this issue:

NACA Governing Council endorses new work programme, elects Sena De Silva as next Director General. RapiDot Kit - Farmer friendly kit for WSSV detection. Regional mariculture program strengthened. Economics and marketing analysis of the live reef fish food trade in the Asia-Pacific. Workshop on molecular techniques in aquaculture and seafood safety, Mangalore, India. Better-practice approaches for culture-based fisheries development in Asia. High-level Bahrain fisheries deletation visits Iran. First monthly meeting of fish farmers at One-stop Aqua Shop in Punjab Pakistan. Fish breeding training program for farmers of OAS, Kaipara. Provincial workshops on National Fisheries Policy and Strategy Framework held in Punjab and Sindh, Pakistan. Monitoring and evaluating the impacts of aquaculture on the agency and well-being of women. STREAM welcomes AYAD volunteer. Workshop to strengthen aquatic animal health capacity and biosecurity in ASEAN. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (AFITA) 2006 in Bangalore. Aquaculture rehabilitation project launched by Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

White tail disease in Macrobrachium rosenbergii is emerging as a serious problem in the region. Two viruses, M. rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNA) and extra small virus (XSV) have been found to be associated. The role of MrNV and XSV is not yet clear. Considering the economic impact and potential for the disease to spread, white tail disease (MrNV and XSV) has been listed under non-OIE listed crustacean diseases relevant to the region and NACA/FAO/OIE Regional QAAD list.

This is the proceedings of the workshop on Building capacity to combat impacts of aquatic invasive alien species and associated trans-boundary pathogens in ASEAN countries, held in Penang, Malaysia, on the 12th-16th July 2004. The workshop built on the recommendations from a 2002 workshop organised by the Global Invasive Species Program and a 2003 workshop of countries sharing the Mekong watershed, in promoting awareness, coordination mechanisms and information exchange systems and identifying management and risk mitigation measures.

In order to provide practical and effective technical guidance for shrimp hatchery management, it is necessary to establish a set of better management practices (BMPs) which underpin an effective hatchery production system. This document is not a complete manual on the management of P. monodon hatcheries but concentrates on the implementation of BMPs for the hatchery covering all of the critical stages and processes in the production cycle, which are currently believed to be causing problems in Vietnamese hatcheries. 

This report describes the experiences and lessons learnt from activities conducted by NACA in Viet Nam to support the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector using better management practices and harmonised strategies for the management of aquatic animal health and environmental problems. Achievements included reducing the risk of diseases from seed and on farms, developing capacity at the provincial and national levels, developing an effective surveillance system and wide dissemination of experiences.

This report, the 31st in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of fourteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses recent activities to strengthen aquatic animal health management in ASEAN.

In this issue:

Nursery rearing of silver barb Puntius goniotus. Artemia enrichment and biomasss production for larviculture. Seed production of mud crab Scylla serrata in India. Macrobrachium on the southwest coast of India. Fish wastes in urban and suburban markets of Kolkata: Problems and solutions. Groups of poor women farming carps in leased ponds, Bangladesh. Lymphocystis disease and diagnostic methods in China. Mesocosm technology advances grouper aquaculture in northern Australia.

In this issue:

Training workshop on molecular genetics. Outcomes of the 8th Technical Advisory Committee Meeting. Taking the 'grey' out of 'grey literature'. An introduction to the South Iran Aquaculture Research Center. Aquaclubs in India achieve good crops this year, with further challenges ahead. Rebuilding resilience of coastal populations and aquatic resources. Recent activities in STREAM. First international PCR training workshop completed. AusAID funds two aquatic animal health projects. Asia Regional Advisory Group continues to support aquatic animal disease management in the region. Indonesia accedes to the NACA Agreement. Governing Council 17 to set NACA Work Programme 2006-2010. Marine fish culture manuals now available in Thai. Aquaculture Rehabilitation Guide in Aceh, Indonesia. Boat building in the tsunami affected areas of NAD: Fishing vessel quality issues. Australasian Aquaculture 2006, 27 - 30 August, Adelaide. East Asian Seas Congress, 12-16 December 2006, China. Aquafeed Production Workshop, 8 March 2006, Thailand.

The Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health meets annually to discuss regional health issues including emerging disease threats. This report includes a review of regional disease status circa 2005, global and regional disease reporting arrangements, global issues and standards, progress in implementation of the the Regional Technical Guidelines on Health management for the Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals, identification and designation of regional aquatic animal health resources and regional and international cooperation.

If the place where fish live is good and healthy, fish rarely die from diseases. If we stress fish by roughly handling them, by keeping too many together, or by not feeding them well, they may suffer from disease. Depending on the disease, we may see lots of fish die in a short time, small numbers of fish deaths every day, reduced growth, marks on the fish, or a change in the way they look or swim.

This presentation, delivered at the Sixth Symposium on Diseases in Asian Aquaculture (Sri Lanka, 2005), reviews the strategies adopted to promote a more sustainable approach to shrimp health management. It also presents and compares the experiences gathered to date, with the aim to identify an effective way forward for the sustainable development of the sector, and provides guidance on a way forward to implement better management practices with reference to small-scale producers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This report, the 29th in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of fourteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses the outcomes of the fourth meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health.

This report provides details of the activities and outcomes of work conducted under the World Bank, NACA, WWF and FAO consortium program on Shrimp Farming and the Environment. The report synthesises the major findings of the consortium program from 1999-2002. It includes the outcome from a stakeholder workshop that discussed the program findings, hosted by the World Bank in Washington DC, in March 2002.

In this issue:

Sustainable aquaculture rehabilitation workshop in Aceh, Indonesia. STREAM policy briefs and better practice guidelines. 25 years of training in integrated fish farming. The Responsibilities of Leadership. A helping hand for those who needed it after the tsunami. An introduction to Mirza Koochek Khan Higher Fisheries Education & Training Centre, Iran. ACIAR funded regional project on shrimp health. Impact of aquatic animal health strategies. Farewell Sih Yang Sim. Welcome Koji Yamamoto.

This document is the technical proceedings of the Asia Regional Scoping Workshop on “Primary Aquatic Animal Health Care in Rural, Small-scale, Aquaculture Development,” held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 27 - 30 September 1999. The objectives of the workshop were  to review information on socio-economic impacts, risks of disease incursions and health management strategies in rural, small-scale aquaculture and enhanced fisheries programmes; and to identify potential interventions for their better health management and appropriate followup actions.