Intensive aquaculture production is necessary to meet increasing global demand for fish and shellfish, but bacterial pathogens can cause devastating losses leading to product shortages. This is because bacterial pathogens tend to act opportunistically on already damaged or severely immunocompromised hosts, so they can go undetected, and uncontrolled, until it is too late. There are various options for treating bacterial pathogens, including antibiotics, but these must be administered prudently to manage the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, occurs when substances used to treat pathogens are no longer effective because the pathogens have become immune. These resistant microbes can spread across borders, through the food chain, between people and animals, and in the environment, creating a problem of global scale and necessitating better antimicrobial management practices within and across sectors and countries.

To respond to the urgent need for technical guidance on how best to manage bacterial pathogens for fish and shellfish, FAO is developing a publication on “Responsible Management of Bacterial Diseases in Aquaculture.”

For the third event in this “WriteShop” series, FAO gathered experts from Croatia, India, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and the United States of America in Putrajaya, Malaysia 3-5^th August to develop a book which will tackle ten bacterial disease groups with six gram-negative bacteria (e.g., vibriosis, aeromonasiasis, edwardsiellosis, pseudomonasiasis, flavobacteriosis, infection with intracellular bacteria) and four gram-positive bacteria (e.g., mycobacteriosis, streptococcosis, renibacteriosis and infection with anaerobic bacteria). Some 38 pathogens causing bacterial diseases for cultured finfish, crustaceans and molluscs in fresh and marine waters will be highlighted. The selection of bacterial pathogens is based on: 1) economic importance of affected species; 2) socio-economic impact; and 3) zoonotic potential – the potential for infections to be transmissible to humans.

The publication will provide key input to National Action Plans (NAP) on AMR in development by the four participating countries (i.e. China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Viet Nam) as part of FAO’s Action Plan on AMR (2016-2020) and the Global Action Plan on AMR adopted at the 68^th World Health Assembly in 2015.

Following the “WriteShop” from 7-9^th August, FAO joined delegates¹ and experts² from 15 countries, hosted by Malaysia’s Department of Fisheries and INFOFISH, for updates on country-level progress on AMR NAPs, antimicrobial use and AMR surveillance, and to discuss good practices in aquatic animal disease diagnostics and aquaculture biosecurity. A third workshop is expected at the end of the year to share achievements and identify capacity-building requirements for implementing the National Action Plans on AMR.

___

^[1] China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam

^[2] Croatia, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States of America

Questions? Contact [email protected]

Related Links:

• Workshop 2 Presentations in Putrajaya, Malaysia
• Workshop 1 Presentations in Mangalore, India
• FAO Antimicrobial Resistance Website
• The FAO Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2016-2020
• Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance
• Antimicrobial Resistance and our Food Systems: Challenges and Solutions