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 2013, 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.

The workshop was held in Bali, Indonesia from 6 to 8 November 2013. The programme included reports on current aquatic animal disease situations in selected countries and presentations on the national aquatic animal health programmes of China, Japan and Korea. In addition, case studies on the molluscan diseases, shrimp diseases and finfish diseases were presented to facilitate the subsequent discussion on emergency response of those diseases in the national and regional level.

The OIE has been working to improve aquatic animal health globally through various activities including the development of Aquatic Animal Health Code and Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals. Considering that aquaculture is expanding and becoming a major food producing sector in the region of Asia and the Pacific, recent spread and outbreaks of some aquatic animal diseases in the region is our concern.

The symposium provided a venue for information sharing on extension of small-scale aquaculture targeted to those individuals and relevant organisations involved in various aquaculture development projects. The symposium also assessed and presented the effectiveness of “farmer-to-farmer extension” approaches in the implementation of relevant aquaculture development projects in the region. The symposium was organised by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), NACA and the Thai Department of Fisheries. 

Shrimp aquaculture in tropical regions is facing a disease-induced catastrophe of lost production. There is reason to believe that current (poor) broodstock management practices may induce genetic erosion that increases susceptibility to disease and vulnerability to epizootics. The basic tenet for this consultation is that an important aggravating factor in the disease crisis is an agro-economic system that locks shrimp breeders, hatcheries and farmers into behaviour that induces high levels of inbreeding.