The Australian prawn farming sector provides significant income to regional economies, particularly parts of Queensland. The entrance of an exotic disease can potentially cripple the industry. Hence, it is prudent to reduce the risks of disease incursion domestically and on-farm. 

Since 2010, a number of disease outbreaks have been reported within the prawn farming industry in South-East Asia. This highlights the importance of biosecurity (the practice of disease prevention and management) within the industry. The summit assisted in raising awareness of exotic diseases and strategies to prevent and control emergency disease events. 

Engagement of the industry for on-going disease surveillance is important. The summit provided further education to improve current practices on-farm to aid in disease surveillance. As the project had an interactive framework, it encouraged industry to help identify areas of improvement in the current system. 

The summit was run on the 31st July 2012, and provided a platform for the collaboration of government workers, farmers, researchers and industry. Approximately 35 people were in attendance for the biosecurity summit, and were provided with case studies and examples of the consequence of emergency aquatic animal disease outbreaks suffered by international industry. The necessity of disease prevention was the focus throughout the summit as the limitations of treatment and control were detailed. Applied prevention measures for Australian farms were highlighted. 

Keywords: Prawn Superpowers Summit; aquatic animal diseases.