The Asia Diagnostic Guide to Aquatic Animal Diseases or ‘Asia Diagnostic Guide’ is a comprehensive, up-datable diagnostic guide in support of the implementation of the Asia Regional Technical Guidelines on Health Management for the Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals or ‘Technical Guidelines’. It was developed from technical contributions of members of the Regional Working Group (RWG) and Technical Support Services (TSS) and other aquatic animal health scientists in the Asia-Pacific region and outside who supported the Asia-Pacific Regional Aquatic Animal Health Management Programme.

The Asia Diagnostic Guide is a third of a series of FAO Fisheries Technical Papers developed as part of an FAO Technical Co-operation Project – Assistance for the Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals – implemented by NACA, in collaboration with OIE and several other national and regional agencies and organisations. The Technical Guidelines and the associated Beijing Consensus and Implementation Strategy (BCIS) was published as first (FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 402) of the series. The Manual of Procedures for the Implementation of the Asia Regional Technical Guidelines on Health Management for the Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals or ‘Manual of Procedures’, which provides background material and detailed technical procedures to assist countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region in implementing the Technical Guidelines was the second of the series (FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 402, Supplement 1). The Asia Diagnostic Guide (FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 402, Supplement 2) is published as the third document of the series.

All of the above-mentioned documents, developed in a highly consultative process over a period of three years (1998-2001) of consensus building and awareness raising, are in concordance with the OIE International Aquatic Animal Code (Third Edition) and the OIE Diagnostic Manual for Aquatic Animal Diseases (Third Edition) and the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS) and in support of relevant provisions of FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF).