Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA)

Bangkok, Thailand

• This Presentation – Aquatic animal health Research priorities of the

countries that NACA represents which are not participating in the ASEM

– Opinion of NACA

About NACA

• Intergovernmental organization of 16 member governments and 5 participating (non-member) governments in the Asia-Pacific region

• Vision is to promote rural development through sustainable aquaculture

• For Programs and activities please visit our website: www.enaca.org

Regional Aquatic Animal Health Program

• The purpose of NACA’s aquatic animal health program is to “reduce risks of aquatic animal diseases impacting on livelihoods of aquaculture farmers, national economies, trade and human health”

• Implements programs in collaboration with governments, international organizations (e.g. FAO, OIE), donors and development agencies.

Expected outputs from the regional aquatic animal health program

• Improved surveillance, reporting and response to disease problems in the region

• Practical national aquatic animal health strategies developed, adopted and implemented

• Widespread adoption of better aquatic animal health management practices

• Harmonized diagnostic procedures and approaches to risk assessment

• Improved regional and international cooperation

Countries participating in the regional aquatic animal health program

ASEM members Non-ASEM membersChina AustraliaIndonesia BangladeshJapan CambodiaKorea RP Hong KongMalaysia IndiaPhilippines IranSingapore Korea DPRThailand Laos PDRVietnam Myanmar

NepalPakistanSri Lanka

History of health program in the region

Asia Regional Guidelines on Health Considerations for the Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic

Animals

Technical Guidelines provide a framework

• Guiding principles• Pathogens and disease

diagnosis• Certification and

quarantine measures• Zoning and surveillance• Disease reporting• Import risk analysis• Contingency planning• National strategies and

regulatory framework• Capacity building

Status of TG Implementation in the region

Elements in TG Progress made (Number of Countries)

good moderate low

Disease diagnosis 8 8 5

Health certification and quarantine measures 10 5 6

Disease zoning 3 3 15

Disease surveillance and reporting 6 9 6

Contingency planning 2 7 12

Import risk analysis 2 5 14

National strategies and policy frameworks 11 4 6

Regional Disease Reporting

• NACA/FAO/OIE activity

• QAAD List– Includes all 35 OIE

listed diseases– Plus 8 diseases of

concern to the region• First regional QAAD

published in 1998• 23 QAAD published

Important diseases in the region

Serious diseases in the region

• Fish– Epizootic ulcerative syndrome– Infection with koi herpes virus – Viral nervous necrosis – Grouper iridoviral disease

• Shrimp– White spot disease– Yellow head disease– Taura syndrome

• Mollusc– Abalone viral mortality?

Finfish Diseases

Country EUS VNN Infection with KHV Grouper Iridoviral disease

Australia + +

Bangladesh +

Cambodia +

China PR

DPR Korea

Hong Kong China + +

India +

Indonesia + + + +

Iran

Japan + + +

Lao PDR +

Malaysia + +

Myanmar +

Nepal +

Pakistan +

Philippines + +

Korea RP +

Singapore + +

Sri Lanka +

Thailand + +

Vietnam + + +

Shellfish Diseases

Country WSD Taura syndrome

Australia

Bangladesh +

Cambodia +

China PR + +

DPR Korea

Hong Kong China

India +

Indonesia + +

Iran +

Japan +

Lao PDR

Malaysia +

Myanmar +

Nepal

Pakistan

Philippines +

Korea RP +

Singapore +

Sri Lanka +

Thailand + +

Vietnam + +

Other emergingproblems

Name of the pathogen/Disease Number of countries (known to occur)

Slow growth syndrome in P.monodon

2

Mourilyan virus (MoV) in shrimp 2

White body disease in P.monodon 1

White tail/body disease inMacrobrachium rosenbergii

2

Red spot disease (red hemorrhagic disease) in grass carp

3

Abalone viral mortality 2

Capacity for Research in non-ASEM countries

Capacity for aquatic animal health research in 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region which are not ASEM members

Thematic areas Number of Countries

good moderate Low/Nil

Disease mechanisms 2 2 8

Diagnostics 1 3 8

Epidemiology 1 2 9

Health management 2 2 8

Immunology 1 2 9

Food safety 3 1 8

Vaccine development 1 2 9

Import risk analysis 1 1 10

Disease surveillance 1 2 9

Need for Research Cooperation

• Training programs and Workshops – Awareness building at individual level

• Collaborative research programs– Capacity building at the institutional level– Sustainable

• Networking between institutions in EU and ASIA– Information sharing– Capacity building at the national and regional level

Research Issues

EUS

• Impact of EUS on species diversity in natural water bodies (population of susceptible species declined??)

• Identifying mechanisms responsible for resistance in some species (Chinese carps, Tilapia, Indian carps)

• Risk factors for EUS outbreaks in culture ponds and demonstration of intervention strategies

KHV

• Risk factors for HKV outbreaks in countries where it has established to minimize the impact

• Rapid and simple field diagnostics to enable practical surveillance, early detection and early response

• Identification of carriers (if any)• Susceptibility of other carp species to KHV

(Indian carps?)• Effective vaccines

White spot Disease

• Risk factor studies under different farming conditions

• Pond side predictors• Intervention studies to demonstrate the

effectiveness of risk reduction strategies• Risks associated with frozen shrimp and shrimp

products• Molecular epidemiological studies to better

understand the relationship between genotypes and virulence

Taura syndrome

• Risk factor studies and identification of management interventions

• Susceptibility of P.monodon• Susceptibility of other crustaceans

(freshwater prawn and crayfish)• TSV on wild stock?-alien pathogen• Pond side rapid diagnostics

Shrimp viruses

• Multiple viral infections and implications• Improved diagnostics for detecting multiple

viral pathogens• Genotypes and virulence• Genotypes and implications for SPF and

SPR programs• Diagnostics to detect different genotypes

Monodon slow growth syndrome

• Etiology• Case definition• Risk factors• Management interventions• Role of co-habitation?• Viruses jumping between species?• Role of feed (feed made with P.vannamei)

White tail/body disease in M.rosenbergii

• Etiology • Interaction between two viruses• Risk factors and management interventions• Susceptibility of other crustaceans (reports

of white body disease in P.monodonhatcheries)

• Rapid field diagnostics

Other relevant issues

• Investigate the use of indigenous species (breeding, etc) to limit movement of alien species

• Assessment of the accuracy of “level I diagnosis” and “field keys” to diagnose health problems (needs to be done using level II and level III as gold standards)– Resource poor countries can develop simple

surveillance systems

• Vaccines for diseases of concern to the region

Other relevant issues

• Live aquatic species Introductions– Co-habitation tests employing important endemic

species

• Risk assessments– Effective use of diagnostic tools in risk management

protocols– Countries could present a list of potential introductions

that they are planning and research projects could be carried out to assess the risk of those movements

Research priorities• Disease mechanisms

– (e.g.pathology, infection and disease)• Aquatic epidemiology

– (e.g.descriptive epidemiology, longitudinal observational studies)

• Disease diagnostics– (e.g.assessing the accuracy of level I diagnosis for

surveillance, rapid and cheap pond side diagnostics, Standardisation and inter-calibration )

• Management interventions– (e.g.risk reduction strategies, vaccines)

• Extension approaches– (e.g. self-help groups, collective approaches)

Aquatic epidemiology

• Focus on observational studies to build research capacity– Can be done with limited resources– Sustainable after the projects are over

• Knowledge and expertise could be applied– To address other health problems– To evaluate management practices– To identify cost effective management practices

Desired Impact

• The research priorities identified and funded should:– Enable capacity and awareness building– Impart specialist training– Contribute to some infrastructure development– Be sustainable after the project period with the

available resources and expertise

Regional priorities

• Networking between institutions in EU and ASIA which can contribute to:– Training– Capacity building– Collaborative research– Information sharing– Sharing of resources

Opportunities for collaboration

• Asia Regional Advisory Group with similar expert bodies in EU (e.g.PANDA)

• Asia Regional Resources (regional resource experts, regional resource centres and regional reference laboratories) with EU networks and other Networks of excellence

• Role of NACA– Identify the appropriate collaborators/institutions from

the region– Facilitate national/regional coordination and integration

Issues for further consideration and discussion during the workshop

• The importance of capacity building to undertake relevant research

• The need for national coordination and institutional cooperation

• The need to understand risks, and focus on key pathogens of concern

• The need to be realistic about aquatic animal health research based on available financial resources, and make effective use of existing institutional resources.

NACA thanks ASEM platform workshop organizers for the invitation to this workshop

and welcomes the opportunity to continue collaboration with ASEM to further support our member governments to improve aquatic

animal health management