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Aquatic animal health monitoring important for curbing production losses

24 October 2016 - 03 November 2016, Durban - Aquaculture’s contribution to global food is fully recognised and half of the fish that we eat now come from aquaculture. Diseases and pathogens are considered an imminent threat to aquaculture development.

As aquaculture intensifies and expands globally, live aquatic animals and their products have been moved widely and disease outbreaks have occurred, causing serious production losses throughout the world. However, there is a grave paucity of accurate data and information on the social and economic impacts of diseases in aquaculture and so far no systematic socio-economic assessment has been carried out.

There is also a significant lack in expertise on science-based risk assessment in aquaculture and many countries in Africa suffer from the lack of national aquatic animal health management strategies.

Considering the above, FAO, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries South Africa, held three expert workshops from 24 October to 03 November 2016.

The workshops have been made possible by an FAO project financed by the African Solidarity Trust Fund. The three workshops, attended by over 120 participants from 11 Southern African regional countries, provided training in aquatic animal health risk assessment and in developing national aquatic animal health strategies, and developed methodology for assessing socio-economic impacts of aquatic animal diseases.

FAO will continue to provide guidance to these Southern African countries to improve their national aquatic animal health status and embark on a systematic assessment of socio-economic impacts of aquatic animal diseases, in the coming year.