The Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association, OATA, has published a report on biosecurity in the aquarium trade which it hopes may help to future proof the industry.
The 174-page document entitled Biosecurity and the Ornamental Fish Industry has taken several years to develop and is designed to be used as a working tool as well as a reference guide for aquatic industry professionals.
Besides comprehensive background information on risk reduction and disease prevention, quarantine and laboratory protocols, the document also includes a number of questionnaires aimed at allowing suppliers to determine how biosecure their facilities are so they can take steps to improve where required.
Since it has been specifically designed to be broad enough to be applicable to every area of the ornamental fish industry, the report is not supposed to tell suppliers what to do, or serve as a general purpose guide to fish health.
Instead, the report provides information on the principles involved in making a biosecurity assessment, allowing individuals to determine hazards specific to their business from where they can take steps to protect their livelihood by increasing overall biosecurity.
Keith Davenport told Practical Fishkeeping: "It's a way of not telling anybody to do anything, it just encourages people to think about biosecurity. And, by filling in the questionnaires, the retailers will have to ask questions to their wholesaler, and that will put pressure on wholesalers to ask questions of the exporter, and so on down the chain.
"It isn't to tell people what to do, it's to get them to think about it, and applying it as a management tool and a commercial tool that many businesses do, at least in part, already."
The report will be revised as new information becomes available and gaps are identified and also allows access to a "webliography" of journal papers and other sources referenced in the document.
For further information on the report, members should contact the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association on 0870 043 4013 or email [email protected].