Preparedness And Response To Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies In Asia

The Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies focused on emergency planning and responses to serious outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases in Asia. These proceedings include all papers presented, group reports and resulting recommendations. The material covers a wide range of topics, from a review of the history, current status and socio-economic impacts of transboundary aquatic animal diseases in Asia to analyses of regional needs in areas such as contingency planning, legislation and capacity building.

This document provides guidance to assist developing countries in improving national emergency preparedness in order to maximize the efficiency of response to serious outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases. This is a product of a joint FAO, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and WorldFish Center (WFC) Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 21 to 23 September 2004. The workshop, which was hosted by the Government of Indonesia, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), was attended by national policy-makers and scientists from the Asian Region, and international experts and resource persons from both the region and elsewhere. The complete proceedings of the workshop will be published in the FAO Fisheries Proceedings series.

This document provides guidance to assist developing countries in improving national emergency preparedness in order to maximize the efficiency of response to serious outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases. This is a product of a joint FAO, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and WorldFish Center (WFC) Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 21 to 23 September 2004. The workshop, which was hosted by the Government of Indonesia, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), was attended by national policy-makers and scientists from the Asian Region, and international experts and resource persons from both the region and elsewhere. The complete proceedings of the workshop will be published in the FAO Fisheries Proceedings series.

The Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies focused on emergency planning and responses to serious outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases in Asia. These proceedings include all papers presented, group reports and resulting recommendations. The material covers a wide range of topics, from a review of the history, current status and socio-economic impacts of transboundary aquatic animal diseases in Asia to analyses of regional needs in areas such as contingency planning, legislation and capacity building.

Technical guidelines on Asia regional health management for the responsible transboundary movement of live aquatic animals were developed and presented to the participating countries at a workshop held in Beijing, China, from 27 to 30 June 2000.

This publication provides background material and detailed technical procedures to assist countries and territories in Asia in implementing the Asia regional technical guidelines on health management for the responsible movement of live aquatic animals. The technical guidelines and their associated implementation plan, the Beijing consensus and implementation strategy (BCIS) (See FAO Fisheries Technical Paper no. 402), provide expert guidance for national and regional efforts to reduce the risks of disease due to transboundary movement of live aquatic animals.

With the increase in the culture of 'new' aquatic animal species and the consequential discovery of new and emerging diseases, it appears timely to provide an update on the range of disease emergency management strategies. The main purpose of this volume of the Review is therefore to provide a state-of-the-art compilation and assessment of aquatic animal disease emergency management strategies, covering policies as well as operational tools, from international to farm levels. It aims to provide useful generic information on the different issues surrounding the management of aquatic animal disease emergencies, written by world specialists.

This publication is based on the discussions and recommendations arising from an expert consultation, jointly organised by the FAO, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the Canadian Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, held in Rome in October 2002. It contains technical information on the design of scientifically valid zonation frameworks for disease control and surveillance, aimed at providing advice to countries building national or regional aquatic animal health management infrastructures. It includes a case study of the Atlantic Canadian oyster disease surveillance programme, which was implemented to deal with a disease outbreak which occurred at the same time as the expert meeting was being held.