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Adoption
Industry
Industry

Australian Prawn Farms - Emerging disease investigation

Project number: 2018-166
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $180,960.00
Principal Investigator: Matthew A. Landos
Organisation: Australian Prawn Farms Pty Ltd
Project start/end date: 3 Feb 2019 - 30 Nov 2019
:

Need

Bacterial cultures from sick PL's from crashing hatchery tanks did not reveal a common pathogen across the multiple dying hatchery tanks.
Understanding the cause of the substantial hatchery PL mortality could be of value to all hatcheries across the prawn farming industry. Intermittent tank crashes are reported at most hatcheries over their history of operation.
With use of new diagnostic tools, such as next Generation sequencing, exploration for novel pathogens can be commenced using stored material from the hatchery outbreaks.
The further investigation of the hatchery and pond mortalities, offers the opportunity to better define the factors associated with the syndrome, thereby informing management measures for future seasons at this farm, and for the rest of the prawn farming industry.

Objectives

1. Describe potential pathogens in six batches of preserved PL's from sick APF hatchery tanks from 2018 season
2. Develop qPCR for bacterial toxin genes identified in NGS analysis of bacterial cultures collected from APF hatchery water during 2018 season
3. Determine the presence of putative bacterial toxins in prawn larvae samples from sick APF larvae tanks during 2018 season
4. Identify useful post-stocking sampling methods for PL's to monitor health status
5. Preservation of samples from three trial stocking ponds to provide temporally relevant samples for subsequent analysis if warranted by low survival determination at 5-8 weeks.
6. Determine the cause(s) of low survival in experimental prawn ponds, should it occur, using range of diagnostic tests and epidemiological assessment of risk factors
7. Levels of agri-chemical pollutants in source water entering ponds will be measured and their effects on prawn larval health considered
8. Develop recommendations for future operation of hatchery and ponds at APF

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-64713-669-7
Authors: Dr James Fensham Dr Matt A. Landos Mr Matt West Dr Ian Anderson Dr Charles Caraguel
Final Report • 2020-01-01 • 2.09 MB
2018-166-DLD.pdf

Summary

This project was developed by Future Fisheries Veterinary Service (FFVS) in collaboration with Australian Prawn Farms (APF), James Cook University (JCU) Aqua Path laboratory, Queensland Biosecurity Sciences Laboratory (BSL) and the University of Adelaide (UofA). Unprecedented mortality events occurred in a commercial Australian prawn industry hatchery and grow-out farm between August 2018 and January 2019. Initial investigations did not identify the consistent involvement of an infectious agent in particular. A range of potential risk factors appeared to be associated with tank- and pond-level mortality events, however subsequent mitigation of these in the hatchery, did not appear to fully resolve the mortalities. The chronology of outbreaks within the hatchery and soon after pond stocking raised alarm that this could be an Australian case of Early Mortality Syndrome. Further investigation was warranted to identify if emerging infectious agents may be involved and to determine evidence-based control and prevention methods accordingly. During 2019, a prospective grow-out pond trial and retrospective epidemiological analysis of farm data were performed, to identify potential causative agents and/or risk factors associated with the mortality events. The project outputs will help shape recommendations for reducing disease risks, improve hatchery and grow-out farm practices, and further refine disease investigation approaches. The project was funded through the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).
Environment
Industry
Industry
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PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

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ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Agriculture and Food Brisbane
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2016-064
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

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ORGANISATION:
DigsFish Services Pty Ltd
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