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APHIS Aquaculture
Industry Report Welcome! Welcome to the premier issue of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS) Aquaculture Industry Report. Our primary goal in producing and distributing this report is to keep aquaculture producers informed of what APHIS is doing to support this growing industry. APHIS' mission is to promote the health of animal and plant resources, to facilitate their movement in the global marketplace, and to ensure abundant agricultural products and services for U.S. customers. This report will regularly highlight activities and developments throughout APHIS' broad base of services that address plant pests and weeds, wildlife depredation, fish biologics, and animal health certification. We are currently working to expand our aquatic animal health activities to meet industry's need for increasing exports of aquacultural products around the world, for coordinating interstate regulation, and for protection from the accidental entry of animal pests and diseases. Providing services for the aquaculture industry in these areas is a new and exciting challenge for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Throughout APHIS, we are fundamentally committed to meeting our customers' needs by being flexible and by using cooperative, team-based strategies for our programs. We encourage you to give us your opinion about APHIS' services for your industry. Please contact our national aquaculture coordinator, Dr. Otis Miller, to provide us with your feedback. You may reach him by telephone at (301) 734_7679 or via the Internet at omiller@aphis.usda.gov. Sincerely, The APHIS Aquaculture Team A key group of technical advisers has joined efforts within APHIS to work together on issues currently of concern to the aquaculture industry, including aquatic health and exportability of U.S. aquacultural products. The box at the bottom of this page lists the APHIS contacts at the national level. Name Area Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture The Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JAS) requested that Federal agencies involved with the aquaculture industry formulate five major outcomes that they would like to see result from the National Aquaculture Development Plan (NADP). The NADP was originally designed by the JAS in 1983 and has not been updated since then to reflect developments in the private sector. A small working group representing government, industry, and the scientific community will develop the new plan for public presentation in Washington, DC, next fall. On Sept. 15, 1995, APHIS representatives Althaea Langston and Richard Fite presented to the JAS the five following outcomes:
Information about APHIS' plan to expand its services for the aquaculture industry was submitted to the JAS for consideration. APHIS also has requested to have representation on the JAS'working group for developing and rewriting the NADP. European Aquatic Animal Health Guidelines This summer, APHIS coordinated an interagency aquaculture working group to prepare for the Oct. 23_24 bilateral meeting on animal health sanitary issues with European Union (EU) representatives. Representatives from industry, NMFS, FWS, FDA, and APHIS have have held three conference calls to plan a coordinated approach to negotiations with the Europeans about their new aquatic animal health directives. The working group transmitted a list of questions and issues in advance to the European delegation in preparation for the bilateral meetings. The list included a request for an overview of which EU aquaculture directives have been adopted in each member state and what additional legislation is anticipated. The working group also identified two specific EU directives (91/67/EEC and 95/352/EEC) as having definitions and requirements in need of further clarification for the U.S. aquaculture industry. Dr. Andrea Morgan of Veterinary Services' National Center for Import and Export has been designated as the USDA spokesperson for the bilaterals. Aquaculture Export Certification Video Plans are under way for APHIS to produce a video about health certification procedures for the exporting aquacultural products. The video will focus on activities currently operating in Washington State with trout egg exports to Chile. The video will feature activities at Washington State trout farms, the Washington State Diagnostic Laboratory, and the Veterinary Services' Area Office in Olympia, WA. The goal of the video is to provide animal health and natural resources officials_as well as aquacultural producers_with a model of how to implement an aquatic health protocol for exportation of products to a foreign country. Wildlife Biologists Placed in the Southeast APHIS' Animal Damage Control program hired three wildlife biologists last July, placing them in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi to assist aquaculture producers with bird depredation problems. These biologists are helping to develop new methods for controlling fish-eating birds, to provide onsite assistance to aquacultural producers experiencing depredation problems, and to develop management plans for fish-eating bird species in these three States. Aquaculture Industry Overview APHIS/Veterinary Services' Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH) has recently completed an overview of the U.S. aquaculture industry. Topics analyzed included a focus on trends in farm size, the geographic distribution of aquatic species, and a description of the industry's diversity. The overview also examines some of the Federal and State regulations that affect aquaculturists and highlights some important aquatic diseases that occur in the United States. This overview will be used as a starting point for a national aquatic animal health study of one component of the industry scheduled to be completed in 1997. Over the next few months, CEAH will focus on one component of the aquaculture industry to more fully define its specific informational needs. The type of information collected about the selected component will be determined from discussions with industry representatives, academia, allied industries, and other governmental agencies. Aquaculture Activities-State Highlights Maine Mississippi Washington Aquatic Animal Health Issues Importation of Taura Virus Analyzed Sea Lice in the Bay of Fundy What's Ahead The Western Regional Office of Veterinary Services and the Utah Department of Agriculture will be sponsoring an aquaculture meeting this winter for State and Federal regulatory officials, industry, and academia. This meeting is tentatively slated for February in Salt Lake City. To contribute information or to be added to the mailing list
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