PROJECT NUMBER
•
2012-207
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
TAGS
142 results
FRDC-DCCEE: climate change adaptation - building community and industry knowledge
Project number:
2011-503
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$300,000.00
Organisation:
Western Australia Marine Science Institution (WAMSI)
Project start/end date:
15 Jul 2011
-
31 Mar 2013
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
SPECIES
Portfolio scale delivery of maximum outcomes and benefits to fishing communities - ensuring the information reaches the main benefactors.
Confusion in community around climate change impacts and adaptation strategies - need for the synthesis of the science and presentation of information in simple language.
Confusion in the community re: climate variability vs change.
Placing climate change factors in the context of a range of other externalities affecting fishing communities.
Need for more adaptable and flexible fisheries management.
Need for interaction and interface between conservation and resource use at the community level.
Bringing together existing climate change information where appropriate.
Consolidating and reducing misinformation and confusion.
Deliver regionally while still having an Australia-wide context.
1. Increased knowledge and understanding of likely climate change and adaptation measures open to local communities
2. Support of Case Study for Australia in adaptive management that cross correlates regional needs with Australia wide policy and management policies
3. Tailoring the extension and knowledge sharing for regional needs
4. Synthesising, analysing and assisting in adaptation of key climate change information, in the context of external drivers to marine biodiversity and fisheries business
Final report
ISBN:
978-0-9872761-1-7
Author:
Jenny Shaw
Final Report
•
2014-05-15
•
19.63 MB
2011-503-DLD.pdf
Climate change science can be complex, difficult to understand, confusing and contentious. To maximise opportunities for adaptation, increased knowledge and understanding of climate change is essential. The project ‘Climate Change Adaptation: Building Community and Industry Knowledge,’ known as the ‘Knowledge Project’ was developed to address this need.
Additionally, the Knowledge Project was closely linked to the FRDC project ‘A climate change adaptation blueprint for coastal regional communities’ known as the ‘Blueprint Project’.
Marine Discovery Centres Australia annual network meeting
Project number:
2011-401
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$54,000.00
Principal Investigator:
Michael Burke
Organisation:
Marine Discovery Centre Maclean
Project start/end date:
3 Jul 2011
-
30 Jun 2015
Contact:
FRDC
MDCA needs support to assist agencies such as FRDC to deliver key messages to the wider community and industry partners. Other organisations such as OceanWatch Australia, SeaNet, RedMap and a number of universities will also benefit. MDCA is seeking funding to enable 2 representatives from each Centre to cover costs associated with an annual network meeting. Each Centre hosts the annual event at their Centre, in a diverse range of marine bioregions around Australia.
Julie Haldane from FRDC has attended a number of network meetings and Peter Horvat attended the meeting in Queenscliff in 2009.
This application also addresses the following priority questions in the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan: Marine Biodiversity and Resources:
1. Aquaculture: many Centres are located in areas supporting aquaculture industries. We are a link with these industries direct to FRDC and provide information to assist them to adapt to climate change impacts.
2. Commercial and Recreational Fishing: Some Centres work closely with industry representatives in community based research projects. The Centres are a central contact point for industry and community members to access data and research results that may address key issues for their specific adaptation needs.
3. Conservation Management: Marine Discovery Centres are well-placed to deliver up-to-date educational material about the changes occuring in the marine and coastal environment.
4. Tourism and recreational needs: As above, MDCs are considered by the tourism industry as a link to important information about the impacts of climate change, both on capital assets as well as the environments in which they operate. All MDCs are located in key coastal regions and are a respected source of key information.
5. Cross-cutting issues: MDCs are central points that link research institutions, Govt agencies, industry and local communities to deliver important adaptation messages.
1. To enable representatives from Marine Discovery Centres across Australia to meet in different marine regions at an annual workshop to share new ideas, educational resources and materials.
2. To identify new resources that will enable MDCs to disseminate essential up-to-date information about adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
3. To provide a vital link of information between industry, FRDC and the wider community.
Final report
Author:
Michael Burke
Final Report
•
2017-10-02
•
505.19 KB
2011-401-DLD.pdf
Marine Discovery Centres Australia (MDCA) is a network of marine education facilities across Australia that provides high quality education and engagement experiences for the wider community. These learning experiences promote sustainable behaviour in, and stewardship of, our fisheries and aquatic natural resources. Through annual meetings held around Australia, MDCA members were able to gain greater knowledge and understanding of issues affecting our aquatic natural resources and then share this with the Australian community
Tactical Research Fund: novel treatments without sulphites for the prevention of blueing in abalone during canning
Project number:
2011-232
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$17,709.60
Principal Investigator:
Tom Madigan
Organisation:
Abalone Association of Australasia Inc
Project start/end date:
14 Sep 2011
-
2 Aug 2012
Contact:
FRDC
Tissue sulphite residue is a significant issue due consumer sensitivity. Although estimates are highly
variable; commonly quoted figures suggest that about 1% of people are sulphite-sensitive, and of that group, 5% have asthma (USFDA, 1988). One to four percent of all asthmatics may be sulphite sensitive, with this rising to 5-10% among steroid-dependent asthmatics (SPDNA, 2004). There are few data on how much sulphite is required to produce a response in a sensitive individual; however Simon (1998) and Lester (1995) reported that most would react to ingested metabisulphite in quantities ranging from 20-50mg.
The sensitivity issue has lead some countries to impose limits on sulphite residues in abalone flesh (eg Japan 30ppm, Canada 100ppm, pers comm. A. Ziolkowski, SECC) while others such as China, a major market for Australian abalone, have no standards for sulphite residues so have adopted a zero tolerance policy (pers comm L. Feazey, AQIS). As much of Australia’s abalone exports to China go via the vulnerable grey channel there has been interest in eliminating blueing by non-sulphite means acceptable to Chinese authorities. This would then allow entry of the product via legal channels.
The development of a novel non-sulphite anti-blueing agent has the capacity to significantly influence abalone processing, and improve market access, increasing profitability. This supports FRDC’s RD&E Plan Industry Program NRP ”Frontier Technologies for building and transforming Australian industries” and the associated Rural R&D priority “Improve productivity and profitability of existing industries… .” Theme 7 of the Industry Program is also highly relevant: “improve productivity through operational efficiencies, new technologies…”, as is the associated Performance Indicator: “Development of knowledge, processes and technologies to improve productivity and profitability of the commercial sectors”.
Implementing a spatial assessment and decision process to improve fishery management outcomes using geo-referenced diver data
Project number:
2011-201
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$864,251.12
Principal Investigator:
Craig Mundy
Organisation:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date:
31 Aug 2011
-
30 Oct 2015
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Assessment of the Tasmanian abalone fishery is currently reliant on trends in low quality catch data grouped at large spatial scales, and substantially influenced by recent fishing activity of diver (subjective diver opinion). There are no pre-defined logic pathways for decisions (increase, maintain, or decrease TAC) in the form of decision rules or harvest strategies, which can lead to ad hoc and indefensible proposals for TAC change. An evolutionary shift in assessment methods in Tasmania and elsewhere is required to achieve fully defensible management decisions.
Fishery-independent quantitative survey based biomass estimates and/or prediction methods are not feasible due to the size, variability and complexity of most abalone fisheries. The only viable alternative is a system which enables capture of high-quality geo-referenced fishery-dependent data, and a robust logic pathway based on performance indicators to underpin management decisions.
Here we propose the use of high quality spatial data and an objective decision process as the primary pathway to sustainable management advice. The need for high resolution data on relevant time scales is increasingly important as a range of financial pressures drive changes in fleet dynamics and individual fisher behaviour, frequently resulting in over-exploitation of local stocks. Under climate change scenarios, our dependency on historic trends will be less useful, requiring precise spatially explicit contemporary information.
FRDC Value Chain outcome 1: (Ecologically Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Governance and regulatory systems) Tasmanian Abalone Strategic Research Plan (2005–2009) - Need for fine-scale data on fishing effort. ACA Strategic Research Plan (2007–2017) Platform 3: Harvest Optimisation, Objective 2g; Platform 5: Sustainability & Environment: Objective 1b, 5q.
1. To introduce geo-referenced fishery-dependent data collection using the Digital Toolbox across the fishing fleets in South-Eastern Australia
2. To develop, test and implement an objective decision making framework using geo-referenced fishery-dependent data
3. To adapt advances in spatial fishery management from other jurisdictions into the decision framework
4. Extension of geo-referenced data decision systems to Tasmanian industry and other abalone jurisdictions underpinned by robust management science
5. Develop and provide an E-resource to enable individual fishers with access to their data
Final report
Authors:
Craig Mundy
Hugh Jones and Duncan Worthington
Final Report
•
2018-09-01
•
6.83 MB
2011-201-DLD.pdf
Fishing activity was captured across 53,852 one Hectare hex grid cells across Tasmania. A total of 113,164 diving hours were recorded across 125,536 individual fishing events (Table 1). Between 2012 and 2016, the Tasmanian Geo-Fishery Dependent Data (GFDD) program captured between 85 % and 90 % of the fishing effort across the entire fishery. Four spatial Indicators obtained from the GFDD - linear swim rate (Lm/hr), area search rate (Ha/hr), catch landed per Hectare (KgLa/Ha), and drops per day offer significant promise as new performance measures in addition to classic catch and effort based CPUE indicators (Chapter 6). Catch landed per unit area (KgLa/Ha) and Maximum linear extent of the dive displayed consistent and interpretable trends that parallel trends in CPUE, and the relationship with CPUE appeared to be global in nature. Linear swim rate as Lm/Hr appeared to have a local rather than global relationship with CPUE (Kg/Hr), highlighting the importance of underlying assumptions when determining TRPs and LRPs for these new spatial indicators. The GFDD through the linear swim rate indicator was able to detect a change in intensity of selective fishing practices (i.e. fisher diving patterns) in the Perkins Bay greenlip fishery. This finding is an important demonstration of the capacity of GFDD to identify change in fishing behaviour that has a spatial signature. The primary impediment to utilising these indicators in Harvest Strategies or ad hoc decision processes (for states with data available) is the limited time-series from which to develop meaningful Limit and Target reference Points (LRP and TRP).
This project has achieved the first significant quantitively description of spatially structured, spatially discrete hand-harvest fisheries across Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. Serial depletion is often presented as a theoretical explanation for the demise of fisheries, but that concept is rarely supported with empirical data. Chapter 10 demonstrated that the Tasmanian abalone fishery was comprised of several hundred discrete reef systems across the Tasmanian coastline, and that catch was largely proportional to area. While there were several outlier reefs, this relationship between reef area and reef production hints at some underlying base productivity. Strong relationships between catch and effort are routinely observed, but this is the first demonstration that such a relationship also exists for catch and area.
The proportion of fishable reef utilised each year and the degree of overlap between successive years was previously unknown, and researchers and management relied on industry participants to provide input on long-term changes. However results obtained from diver overlap analyses suggest that asking fishers their opinion on whether the global fishable reef is changing is an unfair question, as there is relatively little overlap in where fishers work, and particularly in large fisheries with many divers, any one diver may only fish a small fraction of the total area. Analytical tools developed in this project enable researchers to exploit the GFDD datasets and provide a precise measure of the extent of reef used in any one year. This project demonstrated that the area of reef fished in anyone year may be only half the known productive fishing grounds. This should not be interpreted as potential for expansion, but rather highlights the process of cycling through fishing grounds, enabling some reefs to escape fishing in some years.
There has been considerable attention given in Victoria and New South Wales to develop a predictive tool utilising previous history to determine future catch. While this is a potentially exciting application of the GFDD data, there appears to be considerable spatial and temporal dynamic in predictability of catch. The Geographic Weighted Regression analyses (Chapter 8) were very useful in identifying local areas of temporal persistence, and/or areas where catch is highly variable mong years. These types of analyses may have greater utility in understanding how productivity of exploited reef systems change through time in a backward-looking investigation than in any future predictive capacity. The challenge with using spatial linear modelling of whole of year spatial fishing patterns to predict catch in future years is that TACC decisions are often made prior to completion of the fishing year. There would need to be a clear demonstration that partial years data provided the same overall pattern as the full year data, and that is likely to be dependent on how much quota was left to catch at the time of the analyses.
Several analytical tools were developed to examine fleet behaviour and diver movement patterns, local variability in harvest levels and spatial structure of the reef systems being exploited. Separating normal fleet patterns driven by fisher preference, effects of inter-annual variation in exploitable biomass, and long-term changes in stock levels will require a much longer time series than currently available. Short term shifts in fleet movements and temporal variability in structure of fishing may be easily confused with normal cycling of fishing grounds. There is considerable impatience to utilise Geo-referenced fishery-dependent data in decision making processes and Harvest Strategies, despite no defensible mechanism to develop reference points from the short time series available. Similarly, the proportion of the known fishable reef area utilised each year and the degree of overlap among subsequent years are likely to be enormously informative for understanding one of the key unknown questions in abalone fisheries – is the footprint of the fishery and/or density changing through time. The capacity to identify areas of high persistence of commercially productive stocks will also improve our ability to understand and monitor key drivers of productivity and local regions critical to achieving the TACC.
Project has facilitated the collection of geo-referenced fishery dependent data across Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. A companion project was also run in the South Australian Central Zone abalone fishery where use of the Tasmanian GPS and Depth data loggers was made mandatory in 2013. The success of GFDD in improving the confidence in determining stock status ultimately relies on the high level of data coverage achieved, particularly in Tasmania. While the KUD derived spatial indicators may be useful with lower levels of coverage, the grid derived indicators will be of little use without high levels of data coverage as they rely on capturing activities of the entire fleet across a fishing year. In particular the Index of Persistence developed in Chapter 9 is not viable without a high level of data coverage. If spatial indicators are to be considered as part of annual assessments of fishery status there must be a commitment to ongoing collection of the data to generate a time-series that is useful, and that there is some certainty of these data streams being available for assessment into the future.
Tactical Research Fund: trial of an industry implemented, spatially discrete eradication/control program for Centrostephanus rodgersii in Tasmania
Project number:
2011-087
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$133,200.78
Principal Investigator:
Sean Tracey
Organisation:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date:
30 Jun 2012
-
29 Jan 2014
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Over the last three decades the distribution of long-spined sea urchin has extended from its native range in NSW down the east coast of Tasmania and west through Victoria. The impact of this range expansion is expected to intensify. This large sea urchin overgrazes seaweeds and invertebrates on rocky reefs, causing catastrophic regime shifts in the coastal ecosystems. The 'barren' habitats that are left after the establishment of an urchin population are unable to support commercial or recreational fisheries for abalone or rock lobster among other species. Therefore the incursion of this species into non-endemic regions pose a significant threat to the integrity of shallow reef ecosystems and the associated biodiversity and fisheries these regions support.
1. Determine the effectiveness of divers physically destroying urchins in situ to either eradicate or control spatially discrete aggregations to allow the re-establishment of native flora and fauna
2. Determine the cost effectiveness of objective 1 in regard to lost production for commercial, recreational and customary harvests.
Final report
ISBN:
978-1-86295-949-1
Authors:
Sean Tracey
Craig Mundy
Travis Baulch
Martin Marzloff
Klaas Hartmann
Scott Ling
John Tisdell
Final Report
•
2015-05-05
•
27.38 MB
2011-087-DLD.pdf
The long-spined sea urchin, Centrostephanus rodgersii has expanded its distribution southwards from southern New South Wales, through Eastern Victoria, the Bass Strait Islands and down the east coast of Tasmania. In some areas of Tasmania abundance of C. rodgersii has increased substantially, even to sufficient densities to form destructive grazing aggregations, removing the overstory macroalgae that are essential component of a healthy reef ecosystem. The degradation of these coastal reef systems has serious implication not only to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem value, but also to high value fisheries, with the potential to significantly compromise sustainable fisheries management practices.
This project aims to test the effectiveness of systematic culling in discrete areas as a strategy to reduce the density of C. rodgersii to minimise the potential for destructive over grazing, and secondly provide an estimate of the cost of culling areas of reef on the east coast of Tasmania.
Methodology: To test the effectiveness of culling in discrete area the project applied an experimental design utilising multiple treatment (n = 8) and control plots (n = 4), each 1,500 m2. These plots were assessed using a combination of randomised belt transects and census counts. Approximately two weeks post-culling the density of C. rodgersii within the eight treatment and four control plots was assessed using randomised belt transects, followed immediately by a second systematic cull within four of the treatment plots. Approximately 12 months after the initial culling exercise the density of C. rodgersii in all 12 plots was re-assessed using randomised belt transects, and the eight treatment plots further assessed by a systematic census count.
Two bio-economic models were developed to determine the cost of culling areas across the east coast of Tasmania, as well as sub‐areas (case study areas). The models were developed based on information on the cost of employing commercial divers to cull areas of reef down to 20 m, beyond which dive times were considered a limitation to implement a cost-effective culling program.
Results: Systematic culling of Centrostephanus rodgersii in spatially discrete plots in Wineglass Bay on the east coast of Tasmania was highly successful with average urchin density reduced from 1.51 to 0.13 urchin.m-2 within treatment plots when assessed approximately one year post‐culling.
Systematic culling was also effective at significantly reducing the patchiness of urchin distribution, where high abundance patches are, in theory, more likely to destructively over graze a reef area.
Four treatment plots were culled twice and the reduction in urchin abundance compared with the other four plots that were only culled once. The result was that there was no significant difference in the reduction of C. rodgersii between the single and multiple cull treatments.
The cost of manually controlling an invasive species in the marine environment is inherently expensive due to the costs associated with mobilising logistics to a target area, and secondly the limitations of diver time in the water. In this report we present models that can be used to generate cost estimates to cull a given area based on urchin density and dive depth, with the maximum depth chosen having a great effect on the overall cost. A local scale model estimates the maximum cost to cull Wineglass Bay to a depth of 20 m at $1,617,802, based on a constant density estimate of 1.5 urchins.m‐2. The cost to cull reef areas within Fortescue Bay to a maximum of 20 m using the same model at $877,019 based on a constant density of 0.29 urchins.m-2.
This report shows that systematic culling can significantly reduce the density of C. rodgersii in discrete areas. The implications of these findings are that culling can be considered a viable method in the management strategy evaluation of controlling the deleterious effects of C. rodgersii. The costing models provide tools to estimate the direct cost of implementing a culling strategy at a range of spatial scales across the east coast and can be manipulated to provide a bio-geographically accurate estimate of cost depending on the area (and size of area) selected.
FRDC-DCCEE: preparing fisheries for climate change: identifying adaptation options for four key fisheries in South Eastern Australia
Project number:
2011-039
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$655,000.00
Principal Investigator:
Gretta T. Pecl
Organisation:
University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date:
14 Jan 2012
-
31 Aug 2013
Contact:
FRDC
A project to inform fisheries adaptation to climate change is needed in the South East region because:
1) it is an international ‘hotspot’ for marine climate change, which is currently displaying signs of perturbation and where further shifts, shrinkages and expansions of ecosystems and species distributions are expected;
2) it produces >50% of Australia’s seafood and is home to 60% of the Australian population;
3) a formal risk assessment identified fisheries species at highest risk from climate changes are also those with highest economic importance to the region;
4) its fisheries are managed by five separate jurisdictions whose adaption responses will need to be well coordinated if negative impacts are to be reduced effectively and opportunities that arise are to be seized.
1. Identify likely key effects of climate change on four major fisheries species in SE Australia (rock lobster, abalone, snapper and blue grenadier), particularly where these effects may impact the harvest strategies for these species.
2. Identify options for improving assessment and management frameworks (e.g. fisheries models, performance measures, decision rules, and harvest strategies) to ensure that they perform effectively under likely climate change scenarios (e.g. account for assumptions of temporal stability in temperature-influenced parameters such growth and recruitment).
3. Evaluate options for adjusting management arrangements to reduce negative impacts and maximise uptake of opportunities that climate change may provide to commercial and recreational fisheries (including improvements in coordination and consistency among jurisdictions).
4. Identify improvements to current monitoring systems for rock lobster, abalone and snapper and their habitats to ensure that they are suitable for measuring the likely impacts of climate change and other drivers.
Final report
Final Report
•
6.39 MB
2011-039-DLD.pdf
Over the next century, the marine ecosystems of south-eastern Australia are expected to exhibit
some of the largest climate-driven changes in the Southern Hemisphere. The effects of these
changes on communities and businesses will depend, in part, on how well fishing industries
and resource managers adapt to these challenges.
This project was developed using the results of a formal assessment of the relative risk to
climate change impacts on key fisheries species of south east Australia. Species selected as case
studies in this project were identified as being at high (rock lobster, abalone, blue grenadier) or
medium (snapper) risk to climate change impacts and having high commercial value and/or
recreational importance. The case study species were also identified as being likely to provide
useful insights into how fisheries can adapt to changes in productivity (rock lobster) and/or
distribution (snapper). Two species (rock lobster and abalone) are considered potential
ecological indicators for rocky reefs, whereas snapper is an important component of coastal fish
assemblages and blue grenadier occurs further offshore. The goal of the project was to identify
adaptation options to enhance the profitability of commercial fisheries and maximise
opportunities for participation in recreational fishing.
Spatial patterns, landscape genetics and post virus recovery of blacklip abalone, Haliotis rubra (Leach), in the Western commercial fishing zone of Victoria
Project number:
2011-033
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$73,500.00
Principal Investigator:
Daniel Ierodiaconou
Organisation:
Deakin University Geelong Waterfront Campus
Project start/end date:
30 Sep 2011
-
30 Mar 2013
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Populations dynamics, habitat availability and physical environmental features influencing stock structure need to be considered in order to devise spatially effective management strategies. The need for demographic information at the genetic level is accentuated by the advent of Abalone Viral Ganglioneuritis (AVG) and associated stock depletions in the region in recent years. The genetic component of this project will determine the current genetic condition of abalone stocks and provide a framework for post-AVG stock recovery planning.
For the first time, detailed seafloor structure information to depths of ~25 metres for the entire western abalone zone of Victoria is available. Whilst this information has primarily been collected by DSE Future Coasts Program for the assessment of coastal vulnerability, there is an opportunity to apply the data to determine the spatial extent of individual reef systems, connectivity between reef patches, and the relationships between seafloor structure information and genetic connectivity of abalone populations. The availability of these data also provides a unique opportunity to collate spatially-explicit fishery dependent data available for the western zone into a geographical information system (GIS) and integrate with LiDAR-derived seafloor information using a range of spatial analysis techniques. These data will facilitate investigations of abalone habitat suitability, identification of productivity hotspots (providing indications of productivity in relation to reef extent), and reef characteristics and environmental variables most influencing abalone habitat suitability.
Further, the integration of geospatial and genetic data will provide longer term benefits by feeding into the WADA reef-scale assessment and management system
Strategic research theme: Ecologically Sustainable Development; Victorian Abalone Fishery Management Plan (2002)- Need for better understanding of temporal and spatial aspects which will allow for management on a more refined spatial scale than is currently the case; ACA Strategic Research Plan (2007–2017) Platform 3: Harvest Optimisation, Objective 2f, 3h.
1. Investigate methodologies to integrate commercial catch data with LiDAR-derived seafloor structure information to identify spatial connectivity of reef systems and abalone habitat suitability.
2. Conduct a population genetic assessment of H. rubra in the Western Zone to determine stock population structure and assess the impact of AVG on genetic diversity and recruitment.
3. Integrate population genetics, landscape ecology and spatial analyses to elucidate how genetic variation in H. rubra is affected by landscape and environmental variables at the broad (Western Zone) and fine (Port Fairy to Warrnambool) spatial scales.
Final report
ISBN:
978-1-74156-184-5
Author:
Daniel Ierodiaconou
Aquatic Animal Health Subprogram: development of improved molecular diagnostic tests for Perkinsus olseni in Australian molluscs
Project number:
2011-004
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$305,561.00
Principal Investigator:
Nick Gudkovs
Organisation:
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
Project start/end date:
21 Sep 2011
-
29 Aug 2014
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
SPECIES
Improved diagnostic methods for endemic and exotic pathogens of aquatic animals have been identified as a Key Research Area in the 2009-12 FRDC AAHS R&D plan (6.2.3 Endemic and exotic aquatic animal disease diagnostics).
Since Perkinsus olseni was first described in Australian abalone by Lester and Davies in 1981, histology and culture in Ray’s medium have been the most commonly applied diagnostic procedures for detection of Perkinsus sp.. Although these tests are relatively straight forward and practical, they are general in nature and neither identifies or differentiates specific species of Perkinsus. Despite a well developed framework for the molecular characterization of Perkinsus and modern PCR based molecular tests for some of the more commercially important Perkinsus species, these have rarely been applied in Australia. The first attempts to apply molecular methods to a small number (n=40) of Perkinsus infected abalone from disease outbreaks in NSW have already revealed a new variant which probably represents a new previously unrecognized species in Australia (Reece et al. 2010). This fact and the apparent variation in pathogenicity observed with Perkinsus in different areas, has raised several questions about which Perkinsus sp. are present in commercial mollusc populations.
Given that a significant depletion of blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) stocks in NSW over the last 20 years has been attributed to infection with Perkinsus (FRDC Project 2004/084) and localized areas of infection occur in a number of Australian states, from South Australia to northern Western Australia, the development and implementation of highly sensitive and rapid PCR based molecular methods to identify specific species of Perkinsus is essential. The development and application of such tests is necessarily underpinned by a detailed understanding of the molecular makeup of Perkinsus in these populations which is the subject of this application.
1. Undertake a targeted molecular, histological and cultural examination of known Perkinsus infected wild abalone populations from NSW, SA and WA to compare existing methods of detection.
2. Establish representative axenic (single species) cultures of Perkinsus sp. from infected abalone.
3. Use established PCRs and DNA sequencing methods to confirm the presence of P. olseni and determine the genetic diversity, including other Perkinsus sp. from these populations.
4. Develop and validate qPCR methods for the detection and identification of P. olseni in infected abalone.
5. Compare and evaluate the performance of the Objective 4 qPCR with existing conventional PCR methods for detection of P. olseni.
Final report
ISBN:
978-1-4863-0691-6
Author:
Nick N. Godkovs
Aquatic Animal Health Subprogram: Investigations into the genetic basis of resistance to infection of abalone by the abalone herpes-like virus
Project number:
2011-003
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$107,439.00
Principal Investigator:
Serge Corbeil
Organisation:
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
Project start/end date:
30 Sep 2011
-
15 Nov 2012
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Of particular interest to both the aquaculture and wild capture industries is whether there are
sub-populations of abalone that demonstrate some innate resistance to infection/disease or that are
capable of developing resistance. Identification of these sub-populations could prove useful to both
the farming and the wild-capture sector.
In a controlled culture population it may be possible to breed for a more AVG-resistant population that
would be able to respond better should a disease outbreak occur. Potential AVG resistance between
different wild populations could also be inferred since the parents of the farmed bred lines have come
from different wild sources and we will be able to use knowledge of their ancestry to determine if there
is any evidence for population differences. In addition, should any zones of the natural population be
at low densities such that re-stocking either from cultured seed or by movement of natural stock from
other zones be required, it will be critical to know if there is innate resistance prior to translocation of
any stocks. If sub-populations in the wild are found to be more resistant and others more susceptible,
this may influence management of these zones and restrict movement of stock within and between
zones. If genetic resistance is identified in greenlips, the next step would be to confirm this in blacklips
and hybrids, and then search for genetic markers associated with resistance/susceptibility to be able
to identify individuals and sub-populations that are more resistant or susceptible. Moreover, this study
will be the first examination of virus resistance in a gastropod and might provide us with information on
future events. Identification of mechanisms of resistance to infection/disease was identified as a
priority in the draft national abalone health work plan. Identification of resistant family line(s) would
allow further research on mechanisms of resistance (future proposal).
View Filter
