Tilapia presentations available from Cefas Tilapia workshop
The presentations are now available from the Cefas Tilapia workshop held on the 18 June 2009. They are individually listed below, along with a summary and their author. Cefas ran the workshop for the tilapia industry in England and Wales. It gave the industry feedback about the Francisella outbreak on farms in 2008 and discussed its implications to the industry.
There was considerable interest for such a new sector of aquaculture. The final number of attendees grew to 65, with speakers travelling from as far as Scotland and France.
The day was divided into three subject sessions; disease, production and technical/trade. Ten presentations were given, and the day ended with a discussion on any untouched subjects.
Tilapia Presentations
This talk focused on biosecurity measures and their relevance to the tilapia industry. It explained that biosecurity was meant as a risk analysis method. Risks of disease introduction are identified, quantified and measures put in place to reduce this risk. Biosecurity measures are needed to reduce financial impacts, husbandry complications and welfare issues. It surmised that prevention was the key to recirculation system sites. Careful consideration is needed for stock sources and in the design and management of a system.
This presentation covered the 2008 occurrence of Francisella orientallis in the UK tilapia industry. It discussed the symptoms, detection problems and the impact it has to the industry. This topic discussed the many questions raised, such as where had the disease originally come from?
This talk covered biosecurity in the poultry sector. But due to the similarities between poultry and tilapia farming many of these biosecurity principles can be applied. In part this is due to the poultry industry having a ‘gold’ standard of biosecurity. This is an example to all industries. The talk involved biosecurity practices the poultry industry applies, including the design of production units and audit trails.
The talk discussed the research of Stirling University and how this has helped develop the tilapia industry. In particular it covered sex manipulation techniques - mainly the methods of all male production. Although hormones are used to influence sex in parental stock, these fish do not enter the food chain. Finally it explained the research developed into light regimes which are shown to enhance tilapia production.
The presentation involved the tilapia husbandry and its farming techniques. It focused particularly on providing optimum conditions to effectively grow tilapia. Although tilapia can tolerate a wide range of conditions, it’s not ideal to operate at these. This can compromise the effective production of tilapia, its profitability and finally increase the occurrence of disease. The talk also covered how system design influences the productivity and performance of a unit.
The talk considered the application of disinfection techniques used in recirculation technology. It focused on the use of Ultra violet sterilization and ozone techniques. The need to disinfect water was explained (including the supply water) and the different disinfection methods used were discussed. Finally the advantages and disadvantages of each method were outlined, along with their limitations and costs.
This was a short presentation on sustainable aquaculture and aquaponics. It focused on equipment that is able to save energy - such as air source heating pumps. The different methods and principles behind Aquaponics were explained. It was recognised that there is a high cost to producing a facility (greenhouse building). But this can be outweighed by high cash crop production, a reduction in filtration equipment and the savings on energy costs.
The talk discussed why a sector should be represented by a trade association, which voices the opinions of its member businesses to Government. It explained the formation and involvement of the BTA in shaping this UK trout industry. Also it focused on the formation of a quality assurance scheme for the industry (Quality Trout UK) which is vital if a business is to supply main retailers. Thus a quality scheme is essential in order to sell more product.
Finally the talk covered the FEAP (Federation of European Aquaculture Producers) and explained what FEAP’s objectives were. FEAP lobbies and has a direct involvement with the European government. This is vital, as many legislative decisions are made at this level.
