The book was released as part of the National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases organised by the University.
The handbook contains information on field identification of important diseases of brackishwater and freshwater fish/shrimp and a brochure on best management practices for prevention of diseases in the Malayalam language.
The Vice Chancellor hoped that the handbook, which is first of its kind in Malayalam, would be highly beneficial to the farmers.
Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr C. Mohanakumaran Nair stressed the importance and need for scientific disease surveillance in order to develop a database for the country and to prevent new and emerging diseases.
He said that this was necessary to prevent yet another alarming threat as that happened in 1992-93, when white spot disease that has since created a havoc in the shrimp culture industry was unknowingly brought to the country due to lack of proper surveillance mechanism.
