There are technicians in various locations within Australia who have a diverse range of skills and experience in the aquatic animal health area. These skills are valuable to all involved and perhaps they should be demonstrated/discussed and information exchanged in an informal but structured forum.
As the “aquatic” discipline does not involve as many people as the terrestrial laboratory field there is not as much exchange of information, techniques and outputs. Some staff feel that they are on their own and are even intimidated to ask or don’t know where to go or whom to ask for input or assistance. Although not all aquatic techniques are “unique” there are some aspects specific to aquatic technical skills and procedures. Providing the opportunity for aquatic animal health technical staff to interact, establish networks and exchange ideas and information would enhance Australian laboratories’ capabilities to provide high quality services to stakeholders.
This group would provide valuable technical knowledge, additional sources of information and mentoring to other laboratory technicians, students and staff at teaching institutes.
The funds are requested to assist technical staff to travel to the AAHS Cairns conference (July 2009) to particiapte in a technical forum and a workshop to be held in March 2010.

The Australian government biosecurity committee structure has recently undergone a major change with the development of AusBioSec (http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/pests-diseases-weeds/biosecurity/ausbiosec). As part of this restructure, as of July 2009 Aquatic Animal Health Committee (AAHC) will cease to exist and it’s roles and responsibilities will be subsumed into Animal Health Committee (AHC). AAH technical expertise to AHC will continue to be provided by the National Aquatic Animal Health Technical Working Group (NAAHTWG). However, while AAHC included industry representation, AHC does not. For terrestrial animals, and plants, industry representation comes with membership to Animal Health Australia (AHA) and Plant Health Australia (PHA), respectively. However, there is no such entity for aquatic animal industries. This lack of industry input into AAH policy development has not been lost on AHC and it has advised that it would consider advice from an industry reference group (IRG). AHC has provided some advice on the terms of reference and priority issues for the IRG.

In order to be able to provide this advice industry must first decide whether or not there is sufficient resolve in each sector to commit to self-funding participation in an “National Aquatic Animal Health Industry Reference Group” (NAAHIRG).

It is this last point for which this application is based. The four sectors (wild-capture, aquaculture, ornamental and recreational) are seeking seed funding from FRDC to support a face-to-face meeting for industry representatives to discuss formation of an AAHIRG.

The need and urgency that has prompted this TRF application revolves around the threat of policy development without industry input. This point gains more significance upon release of the Beale report on Australia’s biosecurity arrangements and the Government’s response agreeing ‘in-principle’ to all the recommendations. Industry has to decide sooner rather than later whether it wishes to be a part of future AAH policy development.