78 results
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-064
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Field observations and assessment of the response to an outbreak of White Spot Disease (WSD) in Black Tiger Prawns (Penaeus monodon) farmed on the Logan River in November 2016

This report provides independent documentation and analysis of events related to a White Spot Disease (WSD) outbreak in Black Tiger Prawns (Penaeus monodon) cultured on the Logan River from late November 2016 until February 2017. Disease was first observed on the index farm (1IP) on 22nd...
ORGANISATION:
DigsFish Services Pty Ltd
TAGS
White Spot Disease
Trade
Disease
Biosecurity
Aquaculture
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn

Workshop to identify research needs and a future project to reduce bycatch and improve fuel efficiency via Low Impact Fuel Efficient (LIFE) prawn trawls

Project number: 2016-057
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $35,000.00
Principal Investigator: Steven J. Kennelly
Organisation: IC Independent Consulting Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 12 Dec 2016 - 22 Feb 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Workshop
Resource Access And Allocation
Rac Wa
Rac Vic
Rac Sa
SPECIES
Royal Red Prawn
Giant Scarlet Prawn
Red Prawn
Black Tiger Prawn
Redspot King Prawn

Need

Issues of bycatch and fuel efficiency are now becoming uppermost in the concerns of many stakeholders. These include: the industry itself (which wishes to reduce running costs and discard handling), environmental groups (who are concerned about ecosystem disturbance and energy use), eco-labelling agencies (whose requirements often focus on bycatch and habitat impacts), and the general public (who dictate the “social licence to operate” for such fisheries). These issues have therefore attracted the attention of many governments as well as international agencies like the FAO who first coined the term Low Impact Fuel Efficient gears (LIFE) for methods that reduce bycatch whilst improving fuel efficiency.
However, there have been only a few studies that address these issues. And one of the centres where this work has occurred is the NSW Conservation Technology Unit. In recent years, Dr Broadhurst from this group applied for FRDC funds to enhance LIFE research by focussing on the prawn fisheries in Australia. And his most recent application led to the need for this current application to hold a workshop of the relevant prawn fisheries in Australia to develop the foci, objectives and way-forward for this important research.

Objectives

1. Organise and plan a workshop of key stakeholders in Australia’s prawn-trawl fisheries whose goal is to ameliorate bycatch issues and improve fuel efficiency by developing Low Impact Fuel Efficient (LIFE) gears for those fisheries
2. Hold the above workshop over 2 days in Sydney
and
3. Prepare and finalise a report outlining the conduct and results of the workshop and the staged approach recommended for ongoing research.

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-9924930-4-2
Author: Steven J Kennelly
Final Report • 2017-04-26 • 14.19 MB
2016-057-DLD.pdf

IPA APFA: detection of pesticide impacts on larval prawns in hatcheries and presence in estuarine intake water

Project number: 2016-049
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $95,000.00
Principal Investigator: Sharon E. Hook
Organisation: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
Project start/end date: 14 Jul 2016 - 28 Feb 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Toxin
Estuarine
Contamination
Aquaculture
Animal Health
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn

Need

It is possible that by drawing water supply from pesticide contaminated estuaries, prawn farmers are inadvertently lowering their larval survival rates or are depressing growth efficiency because the pesticide mixtures in these waterways are causing toxic effects. It is also possible that the survival and growth efficiency of post larval stages is depressed by stocking into ponds with either contaminated sediment or contaminated water. While levels of imidacloprid measured by DSITI in the freshwater sections of some Queensland rivers would be sufficient to cause harm in some crustaceans, we do not know what the pesticide concentrations at the farms themselves are, especially not for the entire suite of potential toxicants currently in use, nor do we know how sensitive prawn larvae are to exposure to modern use pesticides. Once this information is available, we can perform a risk assessment for the aquaculture industry.
The aquaculture industry need this information about the risks to their operations posed by pesticide exposure to be able to accurately assess whether or not modern use pesticides pose a risk to their hatchery and pond stocking operations.

Objectives

1. Perform a desktop study of the potential impacts of modern use insecticides on the rearing of larval prawns.
2. Determine whether environmentally relevant concentrations of pesticide (imidacloprid, bifenthrin, fipronil, and chlorpyrifos) affect the survival and feeding behaviour of prawn larvae.
3. Analyse the intake waters from selected farms for the concentrations of pesticides, including the selected insecticides, to determine whether the concentrations approach those that could be harmful.

Final report

Authors: Sharon E. Hook Hai Doan Debra Gonzago Dean Musson Jun Du Rai Kookana Melony Sellars and Anu Kumar
Final Report • 2017-06-01 • 1.20 MB
2016-049-DLD.pdf

Summary

The use patterns of pesticides in Australia has changed over the last decade, with the use of pyrethroid and neonicotinoid insecticides increasing. The limited water quality data that is available has measured increased concentrations of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in particular. Prawn farms in Australia are predominantly located adjacent to estuaries in Queensland, which are impacted by multiple land uses upstream (e.g. sugarcane farming, banana farming, beef cattle farming and urbanisation).  Because of their small size and rapid growth requirements, we would hypothesise that larval prawns would be most susceptible to the impacts of these modern pesticides.

While there is little ecotoxicology data for marine species, early life stages, or Australian species, the information available from studies with crustaceans conducted elsewhere suggests that the concentrations measured in this and other studies may be sufficient to cause impacts on survival, either directly or via inhibition of feeding. However, given the uncertainties in a) the levels of insecticides in farm intake water; b) the impacts of insecticide exposure on prawn larvae; and c) how these compounds interact when they co-occur, we can not adequately predict the impacts of these changes in pesticide use on the survival of post larval phase prawns.

To address these uncertainties, a series of experiments were conducted to determine the sensitivity of post larval prawns to these insecticides. To assess the potential for risk, a series of experiments examined the impact of exposure of post-larval black tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) to modern use insecticides, imidacloprid, bifenthin, and fipronil as well as the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos for comparison. Impacts were measured as decreased survival and feeding inhibition. Post-larval phase prawns were most sensitive to fipronil, bifenthrin, chlorpyrifos, and imidacloprid, in that order. They were comparably sensitive to other crustaceans based on literature studies. Bifenthrin and imidacloprid exposure also reduced the ability of post-larval prawns to capture live prey.
To determine the environmental risk of exposure to these compounds, concentrations of a broad suite of pesticides was measured in prawn farm intake waters. At least some pesticides were measured in every sample. Most of the pesticides detected were measured below concentrations that would be expected to cause harm to prawn larvae, although some herbicides were at concentrations that exceed either ANZECC/ARMCANZ or GBRMPA trigger values, suggesting the possibility of indirect or mixture related impacts. However, in the Mackay Catchment and Logan River, imidacloprid, bifenthrin, fipronil and chlorpyrifos insecticides were measured at concentrations that pose risk to prawn larvae. The potential for interactive effects and the limitations of basing risk on water samples collected at a single time point are discussed.
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-015
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Proposed northern Australia water developments pertinent to the Northern Prawn Fishery: collation and review

The project reviewed the legislation dealing with Water Resource Management in each of Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia that effects the management of overland flow in catchments that empty into water managed as part of the Northern Prawn Fishery. The project...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
TAGS
Resource Enhancement
Rac Cmwth
Modelling
Fisheries Management
Aquaculture
SPECIES
Ballot's Saucer Scallop
King Threadfin
Blue Threadfin
Barramundi
Black Tiger Prawn

Seafood CRC: sustainability Certification Australian farmed prawns

Project number: 2015-712
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $12,000.00
Principal Investigator: Guy Chester
Organisation: Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA)
Project start/end date: 30 Aug 2015 - 30 Jan 2016
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Royal Red Prawn
Giant Scarlet Prawn
Red Prawn
Black Tiger Prawn
Redspot King Prawn

Need

Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.

Objectives

Commercial in confidence
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2015-708
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries (ACPF) Strategic Plan and Business Plan

The vision of the Australian Council of Prawn Fisheries is that Australian wild catch prawn fisheries will continue to: •Offer safe, high quality products that attract discerning local and overseas consumers •Be environmentally sustainable resource managers using accredited...
ORGANISATION:
Ridge Partners
SPECIES
Royal Red Prawn
Giant Scarlet Prawn
Red Prawn
Black Tiger Prawn
Redspot King Prawn

APFA IPA: RNAi treatment of broodstock to reduce disease impacts in farmed prawns

Project number: 2015-240
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $150,000.00
Principal Investigator: Melony J. Sellars
Organisation: CSIRO Agriculture and Food Brisbane
Project start/end date: 7 Jun 2016 - 27 Feb 2018
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Husbandry
Disease
Biotechnology
Aquaculture
Animal Health
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn
Banana Prawns
Tiger Prawns

Need

With the exception for one farm, the Australian prawn farming industry remains reliant on the use of wild broodstock in hatcheries to generate seed to stock farm ponds,. Due partly to problems with GAV often occurring at high prevalence in North Queensland (NQ) (eg. Etty Bay, Bingil Bay, Bramston Beach, Yorkeys Knob), GAV-free broodstock have increasingly been sought from more remote locations in the Northern Territory (NT) (eg. Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and Melville/Tiwi Island) (Cowley et al. 2016).

Broodstock pairs (male + female) typically cost ~$160 when sourced locally from NQ and ~$600 when sourced from NT. Hatcheries use in the order of 3,000 wild-caught broodstock pairs annually. Thus due to (i) the substantially higher costs of broodstock sourced from remote regions in NT, (ii) the detection of a GAV variant designated Yellow head virus genotype 7 (YHV7) amongst NT stock (Cowley et al. 2016) with commercially relevant pathogenic potential (CSIRO Unpublished data) and (iii) difficulties in supply continuity and transport stress, the use of a hatchery-based RNAi strategy to reduce or clear GAV infection from local NQ broodstock with potential to abrogate or curtail the vertical transmission of GAV to progeny would significantly benefit industry.

Proof-of-concept obtained in this project that RNAi can be up-scaled from experimental to hatchery-scale systems, and that progeny with markedly reduced GAV infection loads can be generated from carrier broodstock injected with dsRNA, will provide industry with the confidence needed to apply the technology commercially once an APVMA permit has been issued for its use.

Objectives

1. Knowledge of the ability of antivirals to abrogate vertical transmission of GAV from parents to progeny.
2. Knowledge of the heightened growth, survival and health performance of progeny from parents that received the antiviral compared progeny from parents that did not receive the antiviral, when reared under commercially comparable pond conditions.

Report

ISBN: 978-0-646-98999-0
Authors: Melony J Sellars Min Rao Brian S Murphy Jeff A Cowley
Report • 2018-02-01 • 1.51 MB
2015-240-DLD.pdf

Summary

Reported here are the outcomes of a project with original objectives to assess (i) the ability of injected double-stranded (ds)RNA antivirals to reduce Gill-associated virus (GAV) infection loads in Black Tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) broodstock and whether this can (ii) reduce GAV infection prevalence/loads in progeny and (iii) result in improved growth performance and survival of progeny reared in research ponds under simulated commercial conditions.
As these project objectives were revised due to difficulties in sourcing wild broodstock infected with suitably high loads of GAV, also reported are data from agreed alternative project objectives showing that (i) Infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) is transmitted vertically from infected female broodstock to progeny and that the IHHNV prevalence and infection loads in progeny are influenced by infection loads in their parental female and (ii) the high-load infections that develop in progeny spawned from females with higher-level IHHNV infection result in substantially reduced growth performance and survival of progeny reared in 0.16 ha ponds under simulated commercial conditions.
The screening of batches of wild P. monodon broodstock to identify locations where these might be infected with GAV at moderately-high loads suitable for the original project objectives identified GAV to be present at very low prevalence among prawns captured at various locations in the vicinity of Innisfail between May and June 2016. Similar screening also identified the absence of Yellow head virus genotype 7 (YHV7) in these broodstock.
Further to these objectives and data, it was agreed to include another project variation objective to investigate whether (i) dsRNA(s) injected into tail-muscle of female broodstock at the time eyestalks were ablated to induce ovary maturation/spawning could be detected by TaqMan real-time RT-qPCR in various tissues (i.e. pleopod, ovary and lymphoid organ) several days later when the female spawned and (ii) dsRNA might transfer from injected females to spawned eggs and be maintained or amplified through larval life stages (i.e. nauplii, protozoea, mysis) to an early post-larvae (PL) stage

APFA IPA: towards understanding the relationship of the distribution of the PirAB toxin DNA and Penaeus monodon mortality syndrome (PMMS) pathology in farmed prawns in Australia

Project number: 2015-043
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $52,772.84
Principal Investigator: Helen T. Burvill
Organisation: Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA)
Project start/end date: 20 Mar 2016 - 29 Jun 2016
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn

Need

Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.

Objectives

Commercial in confidence
Environment

Determining the susceptibility of Australian Penaeus monodon and Penaeus merguiensis to newly identified enzootic (YHV7) and exotic (YHV8 and YHV10) Yellow head virus (YHV) genotypes

Project number: 2015-005
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $159,941.00
Principal Investigator: Nicholas J. Moody
Organisation: CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2015 - 20 Dec 2017
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Toxin
Mortality
Disease
Diagnostic
Biosecurity
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn
Banana Prawns

Need

Australian prawn production, forecast at 24 kilotonnes in 2014/15, is valued at >$310 million. The prawn fishery is an important natural resource that supports a substantial export industry. Prawn aquaculture is a significant industry in northern Australia and accounts for approximately 20% of the total volume of Australian production.

Of the YHV-complex of viruses, YHV1 is exotic to Australia, is an OIE-listed pathogen and can cause 100% mortality in 3-5 days. The endemic GAV (YHV2) occurs commonly in P. monodon in Australia and has been associated with Mid-Crop Mortality Syndrome (MCMS). The pathogenicity of the newly detected YHV-complex genotypes to Australian prawns is unknown. While YHV7 was detected in diseased P. monodon its role in the disease is unknown. YHV8 and YHV10 were detected in imported commodity prawns from China. These prawns were released from quarantine as only YHV1 requires risk management according to the prawn IRA (BAA 2009/25). The pathogenicity and potential impact of YHV8 and YHV10 to Australian prawns is unknown and the risk associated with these imported genotypes needs to be clarified.

This project will generate knowledge regarding the susceptibility of Australian farmed P. monodon and P. merguiensis to the newly discovered enzootic YHV7 and exotic YHV8 and YHV10 genotypes. This information is critical for policy-makers, regulators, managers and producers to implement appropriate biosecurity measures. The Project aligns with Key Research Area 6.2.1 of the FRDC AAHS R&D Plan “Knowledge about new and emerging infectious diseases” and value-adds to the FRDC 2103/036 TRF project.

Objectives

1. Determine the susceptibility of P. monodon and P. merguiensis to YHV-complex Genotype 7 (YHV7)
2. Determine the susceptibility of P. monodon and P. merguiensis to YHV-complex Genotype 8 (YHV8)
3. Determine the susceptibility of P. monodon and P. merguiensis to YHV-complex Genotype 10 (YHV10)
4. Transfer protocols and controls for diagnostic tests to state diagnostic laboratories

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-925994-27-8
Authors: Nicholas JG Moody Peter G Mohr and Mark StJ Crane
Final Report • 2021-05-01 • 3.59 MB
2015-005-DLD.pdf

Summary

In recent years, new genotypes within the yellow head complex of viruses have been discovered in farmed prawns both within Australia and overseas. This report describes research undertaken at the CSIRO Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness Fish Diseases Laboratory (ACDP AFDL), Geelong, Victoria to determine the pathogenicity of three of these new genotypes to prawn species significant to the Australian prawn farming industry. As part of the project, new diagnostic tests (RT-qPCR assays) were evaluated and determined to be highly sensitive and specific and can be used for monitoring of domestic prawn populations as well as commodity prawns imported into Australia, enhancing Australia’s biosecurity capability.

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