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 2011, 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.

This practical manual "Guide to establishment of community-based aquaculture management groups" was prepared by the national team of Vietnam under the ASEAN Foundation supported project "Strengthening capacity of small holder ASEAN aquaculture farmers for competitive and sustainable aquaculture".

This report, the 55th in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of fourteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome ("early mortality syndrome") in cultured shrimp in Asia.

In this issue:

Reflections on small-scale aquaculture. Azolla - an aquatic fern of significance to small-scale aquaculture. Monitoring quantity and quality of striped catfish pond effluent. Feeding strategies adopted by fish farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India. Hatchery techniques applied for the artificiant production of snout otter clam (Lutraria rhynchaeria) in small scale farms in Nha Trang City, Vietnam. Crude palm oil is a sustainable alternative to the growing fish oil scarcity, particularly for the aquaculture of warm freshwater fish species.

In this issue:

10th Meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health. Flood. Shrimp Price Study, Phase III: Case studies in Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The Sultanate of Oman Embarks on Aquaculture Development. FAO Technical Guidelines on Use of Wild Fish as Feed in Aquaculture. New issue of Asian Fisheries Science and Asian Fisheries Society on Facebook.

This study is a continuation of “Evaluation of the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami and US antidumping duties on the shrimp farming sector of South and South-East Asia” with the aim of assessing the impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the introduction of anti-dumping duties on shrimp farming in the Asian region, with special focus on the effect that these unforeseen events had on shrimp prices and livelihoods of the stakeholders.

This report, the 54th in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of fourteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses emerging aquatic animal diseases in the region, including acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease and scale-drop syndrome.

The Colombo Declaration is a commitment to regional cooperation in aquaculture development for food security, nutrition and economic development in Asia. It was developed and agreed on by delegations from 18 states at a ministerial-level meeting held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 28-29 July 2011.

This is the report of a training programme on better management practices (BMPs) for catfish aquaculture and cluster-based management, which was held at the Faculty of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Can Tho University, Vietnam, 7-8 June 2011. The purpose of the training programme was to build capacity and awareness of selected cluster leaders, lead farmers and provincial extension officers on catfish BMPs, implementation of BMPs, group formation and operation.

This report, the 5rnd in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of thirteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses the 8th Symposium on Diseases in Asian Aquaculture.