This document contains the proceedings, including the texts of 14 papers presented, the Working Group reports and resulting recommendations of the Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 21–23 September 2004. The workshop was jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service (FIRI), the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and the WorldFish Center (WFC), and was hosted by the Government of Indonesia, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF). The workshop was attended by 51 participants, including national policy-makers and scientists from the Asian region, and international experts and resource persons from both the region and elsewhere.
The papers contained herein cover a wide range of topics related to emergency planning and response to serious outbreaks of aquatic animal diseases, including a review of the history, current status and socio-economic impacts (including implications for international trade) of transboundary aquatic animal diseases (TAADs) in Asia; impacts of exotic diseases on aquatic biodiversity; experiences in the aquaculture and livestock sectors in developing and developed countries in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere (e.g. Canada, Norway) in dealing with major disease epizootics (including reviews of recent efforts in Indonesia and Japan to deal the serious outbreaks of Koi herpes virus disease); the role of national governments and the private sector; and analyses of regional needs in areas such as contingency planning, legislation (institutional and regulatory frameworks) and capacity building (training, infrastructure, disease diagnostics, surveillance, monitoring and reporting).
The major recommendations of the workshop are:
(i) at the national level, the capacity and awareness of personnel at producer, disease support and decision-making levels, should be strengthened and adequate resources allocated to support implementation of emergency preparedness strategies; (ii) at the regional level, existing disease reporting systems (e.g. NACA/FAO/OIE Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Reports) should be further strengthened to ensure increased sharing of information on national aquatic animal disease status and emerging aquatic animal diseases of significance to Asia; (iii) regional technical support mechanisms (e.g. the NACA Regional Advisory Group) should be used to provide expert teams and information to countries in order to assist in early response to disease problems; (iv) research to support early warning and early response should be targeted to rapid diagnostics (e.g. assessment of the accuracy of Level I diagnosis), epidemiology, risk assessments and biosecurity; (v) detailed post-mortem analyses of the outbreaks of Koi herpes virus (KHV) in Japan and Indonesia should be conducted to understand the actions taken by the government and private sector, the extent of their success and the lessons learned; and (vi) core funding should be allocated at national and regional levels to provide ready resources to respond rapidly to emergencies.
Subasinghe, R.P.; Arthur, J.R. (eds.)
Regional Workshop on Preparedness and Response to Aquatic Animal Health Emergencies in Asia. Jakarta, Indonesia, 21–23 September 2004.
FAO Fisheries Proceedings. No. 4. Rome, FAO. 2005. 178p.
