National coordination of access to agricultural and veterinary chemicals in the Australian seafood industry

Project number: 2024-014
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $350,175.00
Principal Investigator: Julie Petty
Organisation: Seafood Industry Australia (SIA)
Project start/end date: 5 Dec 2024 - 3 Dec 2026
:
TAGS
Disease
Aquaculture
Animal Welfare
SPECIES
Yellowtail Kingfish
Cobia
Barramundi
Atlantic Salmon
Black Tiger Prawn

Need

In aquaculture, AgVet chemicals are important for disease prevention, hormonal manipulation, animal husbandry and decontamination of equipment. Providing coordination of AgVet chemicals in aquaculture is imperative to ensure industry maintain access to safe and effective AgVet treatment options. Each project objective fits within the following strategies of FRDC’s 5 year strategic plan (Enabling strategies to help achieve R&D Plan outcomes - FRDC R&D Plan 2020-2025).
Strategy V “Provide foundational information and support services”
• Objective 1 fits this strategy by providing national coordination, ensuring existing MUPs and registrations do not expire and seeking and securing funding for priority AgVet chemical products. Key beneficiaries would be industry, permit holders, veterinarians and APVMA.
• Ongoing national coordination is needed;
o to ensure AgVet priorities of the growing aquaculture industry are regularly progressed towards permitted products; and
o to improve industry disease preparedness, particularly during emergency disease outbreaks; and
o to streamline seeking and securing funding for priority products to ensure resources are not wasted (understanding what projects and data are available, avoids resource duplication and provides higher return on investment).
Strategy IV “Build capability and capacity”
• Objectives 2 and 4 fit this strategy through educating aquaculture stakeholders on safe and effective AgVet chemical product use, ensuring industry have understanding on available products (particularly in case of an emergency):
• Improved education on safe chemical use is needed;
o to improve trade and market access (consumer and environmental safety); and
o to improve industry understanding of available AgVet products available for use.
• Additionally, throughout the project, we seek to build capability and capacity within industry ensuring that industry more collectively has a better understanding of their obligations, how best to engage with AVPMA, and how to better future proof aquaculture’s access to vital AgVet products.
Strategy III “Promote innovation and entrepreneurship”
• Objective 3 fits this strategy through determining options for a user-pays system for ongoing national coordination of AgVet chemical products in aquaculture.
• The last project concluded that a user payers system was needed and supported by industry though the specific model and amounts were not determined. Regardless, support was expressed for the program to:
o secure a system for ongoing coordination;
o ensure permitted products in existence are maintained;
o allow for long-term planning where forecasted AgVet chemical priorities (for future disease threats) are accounted for and project funding is progressed;
o optimise resource usage

Objectives

1. Provide national coordination of agricultural and veterinary (AgVet) chemical products in aquaculture
maintain access to permitted products and seek and secure funding for aquaculture priorities.
2. Improve industry education on safe and effective AgVet chemical use
3. Investigate options for a user-pays system for ongoing coordination for AgVet chemicals in aquaculture and develop a transition plan to be executed at the conclusion of this project.
4. Capability and capacity building plan developed and executed to imbed skills within industry

Related research

All research
research
Industry
Industry
Industry

Targeted research to detect and reduce the impact of Kudoa-Unicapsula-Soft-Flesh Syndrome (KUSFS) in Australian Yellowtail Kingfish and Mahi Mahi.

Project number: 2023-041
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $555,356.00
Principal Investigator: Russell McCulloch
Organisation: CSIRO Agriculture and Food St Lucia
Project start/end date: 15 Dec 2024 - 24 Apr 2028
:
TAGS
Seafood Quality
Rac Nsw
Diagnostic
Consumer
SPECIES
Yellowtail Kingfish
Mahi Mahis

Need

Project Summary

We agree to participate in a collaborative approach with FRDC research partner CSIRO Agriculture and Food St Lucia and will instate an overarching Steering Committee comprised of members from both participating organisations:
•     Dr Roger Chong, CSIRO
•     Dr Terry Miller, Queensland Museum
•     A/Prof Nathan Bott,Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University
•     Dr Cecilia Power, RMIT University

The Steering Committee will aim to meet online every month and as needed to ensure successful delivery of the project.

Our research strategy proposes two approaches as illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Strategy A : Parasite Risk Mapping (This is a collaborative effort between CSIRO, Queensland Museum, and RMIT University).

A parasite risk map  (pathogen environmental monitoring, disease mapping)

• This is a surveillance program using the most sensitive laboratory-based tests. The concept is not new and is the basis for improved risk assessment to achieve health goals (Jarup, 2004).
• It will produce a map of risk for the parasite that is correlated spatially (geographically) and temporally (seasons).
• Commercial Fishers (CF) can use this risk map to support decisions as to where and when to target fish species that are susceptible to the parasites.
• It is like a tide chart, which has predictive value and informs on risk.
• CF will save operating costs by not going to fish where and when the risk map is predicting an unacceptable level of parasite infestation.
• It is not a reactive method to discard affected fish but uses these fish as a resource to develop part B of the research strategy.
• It requires significant commitment from CF in the project to complete the surveillance program (1,2,3 years).
• The greater the collection of parasite prevalence and severity data, the more robust will be the predictive value of the Kudoa-Unicapsulae Risk Map (KURM).
• Voucher specimens for definitive characterisation of the species of Kudoa and Unicapsulae myxozoans will be collected for Queensland Museum work.

Organisation of the project consortium work plan

1. The PCR test(s) and kit development will be performed by RMIT University. The costs of this work is outside the scope of this revised CSIRO project proposal. From the previous version of the submitted proposal, it is estimated to be of the order of $190,000 over 3 years.

2. Somewhere in the ball park of 900 fish samples will be tested by RMIT University. This could mean between 1,500-2,000 individual PCR assays to achieve the required sensitivity of detecting the parasite, particularly if they occur at low prevalence during the surveillance period. These results are foundational to the construction of the parasite risk map(s).

3. CSIRO team will design and operate the surveillance (fishing) program to collect target fish species over 3 years.

4. CSIRO team will design and organise collection of the initial gross and histopathology samples, the PCR samples. 2 fillets will be retained from each fish and stored long-term in freezer storage space. These can be archival material to test the degree of liquefaction if required as a quality control step to verify how much parasite infestation (quantitative PCR copies of the parasite) is needed to trigger the ‘meltdown’ effect, i.e., the tipping point parasite load. This will provide quantitative predictive value to the parasite risk map(s).

5. CSIRO team will perform the initial screening test using gross and histopathology. The results will be a basis for validation of the PCR results. Quantification of the parasite density in fish is required for the parasite risk map.

6. CSIRO team will send all collected and preserved PCR samples to RMIT University for testing with their PCR and kit assays. CSIRO will provide to RMIT University the results of the gross and histopathology work, so that the PCR/test kits can be validated and optimised for field use. Voucher specimens for definitive characterisation of the species of Kudoa and Unicapsulae myxozoans will be collected for Queensland Museum work.

7. All the results of the PCR and kit assays will return to CSIRO team for data entry to construct the parasite risk map(s).

Figure 1. Strategy A : Schematic of parasite risk map research strategy for Kudoa-Unicapsula-soft-flesh syndrome (see attached file).

Objectives

1. Strategy A : This project seeks to complete a sufficient collection of YTK/Mahi Mahi to meet statistically valid evaluations of KUSFS and produce a KURM (parasite risk map).This is dependent on receiving PCR test data from the FRDC research partner to detect infected and non-infected YTK/Mahi Mahi collected from the surveillance field activities.
2. Strategy A :This project seeks to provide material to RMIT University so that it can validate a digital PCR or equivalent PCR assay for YTK/Mahi Mahi KUSFS. RMIT University will test about 900 fish and provide PCR results to CSIRO for the construct of the parasite risk map. QM will assist with the provision of positive control material in the parasite identification and PCR validation work.
3. Strategy A :This project seeks to provide material to the FRDC research partner so that it can develop and validate a Kudoa test kit YTK/Mahi Mahi KUSFS. QM will assist with the provision of positive control material in the parasite identification and test kit validation work.