Intervet at Diseaeses in Asian Aquaculture VI

20 November 2005

The DAA VI symposium, with the theme “Aquatic Animal Health – Facing New Challenges”, took place on October 25 - 28, 2005 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This triennial event, organized by the Fish Health Section of the Asian Fisheries Society, provided a platform for researchers, government agencies and the private sector to exchange research findings and to discuss strategies for improving aquatic animal health in Asia. Approximately 200 participants from all over the world attended the event.

This is the second time that Intervet has sponsored the DAA symposium. Three scientists from Intervet’s R&D centre in Singapore (Luc Grisez, Lauke Labrie and Zilong Tan) and two staff from Intervet India (Ashok Hegde and Ramesh Sikka) attended. Dr. Grisez was one of the co-authors of the keynote presentation entitled “Recent technological advancements in aquatic animal health and their contribution towards reducing disease risks: a review”. Dr. Labrie presented a paper titled: “Nocardial infections in fish: an emerging problem in both freshwater and marine aquaculture systems in Asia”. A presentation was also given by Dr. Phil Klesius of USDA titled: “Attenuated vaccines against gram-negative bacterial pathogens”, in which he highlighted the success of two vaccines, AQUAVAC-ESC against enteric septicemia in catfish and AQUAVAC-COL against columnaris in catfish, both developed by the USDA and marketed by Intervet in the USA for the channel catfish industry. 

Just before the Symposium, the fourth meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group (AG) on Aquatic Animal Health was held on October 22 – 24, also in Colombo. Dr. Tan is a member of the AG and shared Intervet’s aquatic animal health experiences in the region with the other members of the AG.