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Five Fruitful years of operations at Intervet Norbio Singapore

10 May 2005

Intervet decided to set up Asia-Pacific’s first and only private aquatic animal health (AAH) R&D centre, Intervet Norbio Singapore Pte. Ltd. (INS), which was completed in January 2000 (see also Intervet AAH Newsletter no. 1). The U-shaped laboratory complex of nearly 900 M2 consists of offices, laboratories and aquarium facilities. The centre focuses on the warm water species found in the Asia-Pacific region, such as grouper, Asian sea bass, yellowtail, amberjack, tilapia and shrimp. In addition to disease epidemiology and vaccine development, investigations are underway to develop new, high quality and safe pharmaceuticals for responsible use as part of an overall health care management plan for farms. The Singapore centre faces a more challenging task than most R&D centres because it must tackle a wide range of aquatic animal species cultured in Asia Pacific, ranging from temperate to warmwater species. 

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After several years of extensive epidemiology investigations and close contact with the industry in many Asian countries, a good understanding of the most important diseases, and their aetiology and prevalence, has now been achieved. Indeed, through this work, some new very pathogenic bacteria of important fish species have been identified. With this knowledge, it has been possible to develop vaccines and vaccination strategies for several important Asian diseases. In addition, staff from INS have given many seminars and technical training sessions to scientists and farmers in many Asian countries.        
 
Based largely on the success of INS and the fact that a series of fish vaccines are going to enter the Asian market in the next few years, Intervet AAH decided to have a strong presence at the nearby World Aquaculture Society 2005 congress and exhibition in Bali in May. Intervet will have a booth, will present three scientific papers during the congress and will put on a 2-hour satellite seminar “Fish Vaccination in the Asia-Pacific Region” in order to introduce a new concept, vaccination as a key element of good health management, to the Asian aquaculture industry.    
 
In addition, INS is now recognised as a centre of excellence in AAH. Evidence of this is the fact that Dr. Luc Grisez (R&D Director) and Dr. Zilong Tan (Tech. Services Director) have both served two-year terms as committee members of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on AAH in the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific organisation. Furthermore, INS receives clinical samples from throughout the region on a regular basis for diagnosis and epidemiology purposes. As an example, INS was a key participant in the 2002 Indonesia Koi Herpes Virus investigation (see Intervet AAH Newsletter no. 6). Also, Dr. Grisez, Dr. Tan and INS were all profiled in Asian Aquaculture magazine in 2003. In addition, INS staff get frequent requests to speak at congresses and meetings throughout the region.    
 
Since Asia produced about 90% of world aquaculture production in recent years, the region will continue to dominate global aquaculture for decades to come. Just like for the salmon industry, vaccination will become a critical factor for economically viable and sustainable aquaculture in Asia, but it is only the combination of vaccination with several other factors, such as good nutrition, using fingerlings of high quality, and good management and husbandry practices, that will guarantee the highest possible survival rate and the best profit margins. Thus, the success of Intervet’s laboratory in Singapore in developing vaccines and other health products for aquatic animals is very significant and it will help lift the aquaculture industry in Asia Pacific to the same level as that observed for terrestrial farm animals and salmon, where vaccination is routinely practiced as the way to prevent diseases. The extensive knowledge accumulated at INS over the past five years means that Intervet will be able to help the Asian aquaculture industry remain strong and viable, and we look forward to continued commercial success due to the work and dedication of the “fish” team in Singapore.