Aquatic animal health training scheme - Updating and improving existing practical skills and knowledge to support the effective delivery of vocational aquatic animal health
There is a lack of practical skills for on farm fish health investigation and disease management. The National Aquatic Animal Health Technical Working Group (NAAH-TWG) April 2008 workshop highlighted - 'There is ongoing concern that there are too few suitably trained and accredited aquatic animal health professionals to service Australia’s fisheries and aquaculture industries and to ensure succession to a new generation of aquatic animal health professionals.' More recently Dr John Humphrey's presentation at the 2010 Australasian Aquaculture Conference 'Disease investigation in finfish - demystifying the diagnostic process' discussed the need at an industry level for an improvement in investigating fish health skills across the aquaculture industry.
Every state of Australia has an aquaculture industry which requires effective health investigation and disease management. Across Australia aquatic animal health training is being delivered to industry and future stakeholders by vocational trainers using units from the National Seafood Industry Package. Aquatic animal health training is also occurring on the farm informally by other industry professionals.
There is a need to bring together those delivering training, to allow them to update and improve their knowledge and practical skills to enable better delivery and ultimately better outcomes for skill development in farm fish health investigation and disease management to support Australia’s fishing and aquaculture industry.
Final report
People development program: 2011 Aquatic animal health training scheme- Nicholas Moody
A Current Priority in the 2011 FRDC AAHS R&D plan (6.2.3 Endemic and exotic aquatic animal disease diagnostics) is “Diagnostics for agents of national/international significance”.
The AAHL Fish Diseases Laboratory (AFDL) role involves detection/confirmation of exotic and newly emerging diseases (particularly those in Australia’s National List of Reportable Diseases of Aquatic Animal), index case confirmation and supporting national response capability.
Ideally, AFDL diagnostic assays are adopted from the OIE Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals 2010 or ANZSDPs. Unfortunately, for some agents there are either multiple protocols in the OIE Chapter (e.g. ISAV, IHNV, VHSV), real-time PCR protocols for high-throughput screening are not in the OIE Chapter (e.g. VHSV, IHNV) or there is no OIE Chapter (e.g. NNV, IPNV). Where no assays are described, published literature is the only source of information. Due to a time lag between updating the OIE Chapters or publication of test protocols, it is not always possible to be confident that the most current protocols have been implemented. Published methods may not adequately describe the specificity of the tests (e.g. detection of different genotypes by ISAV and VHSV RT-qPCRs).
One way to ensure awareness of the latest developments in diagnostic protocols and to compare AFDL’s capability is through networks with overseas reference laboratories who routinely deal with agents that are exotic to Australia. Nick Moody’s attendance at the EAFP Conference in September will provide an opportunity to visit the EU Reference Laboratory for Fish Diseases in Denmark and the CEFAS Laboratory in the UK.