In March 2021 the FRDC published an initial rapid assessment - Impacts of COVID19 on the Australian Seafood Industry: January-June 2020 - of the direct and indirect effects of disruption to seafood production, supply chains and markets caused by the global COVID19 pandemic. That assessment covered the initial period of the shocks wrought by COVID19 and demonstrated the availability of data to support rapid assessment in such conditions.

However gaps remain to be addressed, including:
1. comprehensive coverage of production effects in fishing and aquaculture across all Australian jurisdictions,
2. coverage of impacts on recreational fishing activity and Indigenous commercial seafood activities;
3. assessment of emerging medium-term impacts (such as changes in Australian consumer purchasing behaviours, structural effects in labour markets and export-oriented sectors, effects of alterations in tourism patterns); and the interactions with non-CV-19 impacts (such as trade tensions affecting exports); and
4. the effectiveness of crisis responses.
Furthermore, the capacity to access data to support rapid assessment in times of systemic shock needs to be consolidated. Finally, insights from rapid assessments need to be harvested to provide Australia with a framework for assessment of systemic (i.e. large-scale, multi-level) risk to the Australian seafood community.

This project addresses these needs through a follow-up Impact assessment report which is more comprehensive, given data availability. The follow up report will include case studies of crisis responses by key government and industry decision makers, and the lessons learned for preparedness for future shocks. It will develop a Guideline for rapid assessment of economic and social effects in fisheries and aquaculture, which will contribute to FRDC's capacity for rapid appraisal and assessments. The guideline will include quality assurance steps to be applied to rapid assessments. Finally, the project proposes to draw insights from this more comprehensive assessment to identify what risk factors to assess, and how, in order to prepare for systemic shocks in future.

Ectoparasite infections are major production limiting issues in aquaculture. The only products permitted for use in Australia against ectoparasites of finfish are formalin, sodium percarbonate and hydrogen peroxide. These products can have negative effects on fish gills and skin and result in direct mortality when elevated chemical dose or duration of exposure are sub-optimal or improperly calculated. Against some flatworm parasites formalin, sodium percarbonate and hydrogen peroxide have low efficacy. Praziquantel (PZQ) immersion treatments have been found to be both safe and efficacious for current fish flatworms applications, at a low dosage and duration of exposure, with a lesser or equivalent environmental impact. The aquaculture industry and the Subcommittee for Aquatic Animal Health identified access to PZQ for finfinfish as a priority. Treatment forms a vital part of parasite management in aquaculture along with husbandry practices designed to interrupt parasite lifecycles. Appropriate use of PZQ can help alleviate reduced growth and food conversion and improves welfare associated with flatworm parasite infestation. A permit obtained as part of this project will facilitate better parasite management, improve production and fish welfare. APVMA provided pre-application advice on PZQ. Available data for PZQ can satisfy the APVMA module requirements for efficacy, chemistry and manufacture, toxicology, trade and occupational health and safety. These are available in published literature, a range of industry studies of animals treated off-label and laboratory studies. There is a lack of data to satisfy the requirements mainly in the environment modules and the target animal safety module.

PZQ is registered as an active ingredient, and for use in cats, dogs, horses, cattle, pigs and sheep in Australia. An unregistered product is manufactured by VetLab Autopak into two permitted products for use in kingfish as an in-feed (PER#87336) or immersion (PER#87833) treatments. The APVMA PAA assessed PZQ as suitable for assessment for use in finfish.