As few major disease incidents have occurred in Australian aquaculture, State/Territory departments have relatively little experience in incident management for emergency aquatic animal diseases. No jurisdiction, to date, has conducted a large scale response to eradicate exotic disease in aquaculture and thus expertise in these areas is limited. In the absence of real-life emergency events, simulation exercises provide a practical alternative to expose staff to aspects of emergency management.
The development of the AQUAVETPLAN Control Centre Manual and a Victorian Control Centre Manual will establish new roles and responsibilities for NRE staff, however, implementation success will require extensive training and discussion. Simulation exercises will improve staff awareness and ownership, capacity and communication.
The need for these exercises can be summarised as follows:
1. Both Government and Industries have relatively little experience with real emergencies
2. In Victoria, there is a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of various individuals and departments especially where fisheries are managed separately from terrestrial animal industries
3. The ability to develop effective State/Territory Control Centre Manuals will be enhanced by testing under simulated disease management conditions
4. Lack of experience with emergency management will invariably lead to a delayed response to a disease emergency, and that in turn may lead to a greater spread of disease, loss of Australia's disease free status and severe impacts on export industries.
All simulation exercises are initiated by requests from clients. NRE has requested the proposed exercise and actively supports the proposal. NRE proposed the simulation exercise as a priority to the ABG and the sub-committee of the FHMC who approved the proposal.

Abalone culture is a rapidly expanding industry, both in Australia and other countries, where sea-based growout systems are common. Presently the most successful commercial abalone farming operations in Australia are land based, although there is a trend towards the establishment of sea based operations in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and possibly New South Wales, in addition to the established operations in Tasmania. The establishment of a successful sea cage abalone culture industry depends primarily on overcoming the problems of high mortality due to mudworm. Successful establishment of this sector of the abalone culture industry, in Tasmania and elsewhere, will enhance the stability and viability of abalone culture in Australia, enabling better competitiveness with overseas producers.

Sea cage culture offers a lower capital investment strategy to a land based operation, and is therefore the best option for some small operators. In addition it represents a cost effective alternative for grow out of larger stock produced in land based operations. The involvement of three of Tasmania's largest salmon producers in sea cage abalone culture is indicative of the potentially valuable means of diversification for existing marine farmers that sea cage abalone farming represents. Additionally, sea based culture represents the most viable means of long term culture of abalone necessary for the production of large animals for products such as pearls.

Mudworm infestation also affects land based operations, causing elevated mortality levels, and reduced growth. In addition, other cultured molluscs, particularly oysters, are prone to mudworm infestation. Advances in mudworm control through improved management strategies will therefore assist the viability of these industries.

Any strategic approach to the control of mudworm, with or without the use of chemotherapeutants, will need to be based on an overall management approach. Consideration will need to be given to such factors as the ecological and hydrodynamic characteristics of sites, the design, placement and maintenance of cages, husbandry practices and management of stock. Clearly the development of such a strategy requires substantial baseline data on the epidemiology of the parasite and the biology of the host/parasite interaction, an area in which there is currently a paucity of information.