Intervet at australasian aquaculture conference

The theme was “Innovation in Aquaculture” and the conference attracted over 1,300 delegates from the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere. Delegates represented all levels of industry and included farmers, processors, scientists, educators, government representatives, business operators and equipment suppliers.

Matt Bransden (Skretting Tasmania), Kate Woodward (Intervet Australia) and Carol Cox (Marine Harvest Scotland) during a Skretting-sponsored workshop and tour on Fish Health Management for the Tasmanian salmonid industry in Nov. 2005. Kate discussed the role of Intervet in the production of vaccines for the agricultural industry and its development of vaccines for aquaculture. Kate also highlighted the technical and regulatory processes required to produce vaccines to meet future health challenges in the local industry.

The programme was broad, encompassing all types of aquaculture, including finfish, oysters, shellfish and crustaceans. Topics covering the entire production process were presented, from selective breeding and practical aspects of farming right through to harvest, processing and marketing the final product. The opening plenary sessions were particularly interesting and relevant to all members of the industry; Viggo Halseth from Skretting ARC discussed the key issues and primary drivers of the industry globally. Rosemary Stanton, a well-known independent Australian dietician, promoted the health benefits of fish and seafood in our diets.

Regarding aquatic animal health, one session was dedicated to vaccines and new technologies. Cedric Komar (and co-authors) presented a paper on vaccination as a disease management tool for barramundi (Asian sea bass), an extremely relevant topic as many Australian barramundi producers are starting to consider and implement vaccination against Streptococcus iniae into their production systems. Other papers presented in this session included a paper on protective effects of multivalent vaccines (Paul Midtyling), serotypic variation in S. iniae isolates (Andrew Barnes), RNA interference in the control of fish viral diseases (Serge Corbeil) and immune responses in invertebrates (David Raftos). Other health and disease management issues were presented within various other sessions, including risk management and surveillance, where there was an update on the recent herpes-like viral disease outbreak in farmed abalone in Australia.

Intervet Australia supported Kally Gross from the fish health unit at Tasmania’s DPIWE to attend the conference and present a poster on outcomes of some of the work conducted with Anguillvac C, a vaccine against Vibrio anguillarum manufactured in Australia by Intervet.

Further information about the conference, including the abstracts, can be found on the National Aquaculture Council website.

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