Aquavetplan enterprise Manual Version 0, 2015

AUSTRALIAN AQUATIC VETERINARY EMERGENCY PLAN

AQUAVETPLAN
Enterprise Manual

Version 2.0, 2015

AQUAVETPLAN is a series of manuals that outline Australia’s approach to national disease preparedness and proposes the technical response and control strategies to be activated in a national aquatic animal disease emergency.

National Biosecurity Committee

This manual forms part of:

AQUAVETPLAN

This strategy will be reviewed regularly. Suggestions and recommendations for amendments should be forwarded to:

AQUAVETPLAN Coordinator
Aquatic Pest and Health Policy
Animal Health Policy
Animal Division
Australian Government Department of Agriculture
GPO Box 858, Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
email: [e-mail]

Approved citation: Department of Agriculture 2015, Enterprise Manual (Version 2.0). In: Australian Aquatic Veterinary Emergency Plan (AQUAVETPLAN), Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Canberra.

Publication record:

Version 1.0, November 2000 (new manual compiled by more than 30 experts)

Version 1.1, November 2004 (major revision of Section B.2 ‘Semi-open systems’)
Version 2.0, March 2015 (revised)

AQUAVETPLAN is available on the internet at:

www.agriculture.gov.au/animal-plant-health/aquatic/aquavetplan

ISBN 978-1-76003-003-2

© Commonwealth of Australia 2015

Ownership of intellectual property rights

Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth).

Creative Commons licence

All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication, provided that you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode.

This publication (and any material sourced from it) should be attributed as: Department of Agriculture 2015, AQUAVETPLAN Enterprise Manual. CC BY 3.0

Cataloguing data

Department of Agriculture 2015, AQUAVETPLAN Enterprise Manual, Department of Agriculture, Canberra.

Internet

AQUAVETPLAN Enterprise Manual is available at www.agriculture.gov.au

Contact

Department of Agriculture

Postal address: GPO Box 858
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
Web: www.agriculture.gov.au

Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document should be sent to [e-mail].

The Australian Government, acting through the Department of Agriculture, has exercised due care and skill in the preparation and compilation of the information and data in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture, and its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence, for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying upon any of the information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.

The information in this publication is for general guidance only and does not override common law, laws of the Commonwealth or any Australian state or territory, or place any legal obligation of compliance or action on the Commonwealth, a state or a territory.

It is the responsibility of the users of this publication to identify and ensure they have complied with all legislative or regulatory requirements of the relevant Australian state or territory and the Commonwealth prior to undertaking any of the response options set out within this publication.

Being a guide only, outbreaks or suspected outbreaks must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and expert advice should be obtained to determine the most appropriate management plan in response to the risk.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Important regulatory information is contained in the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Aquatic animal health code 2014, which is updated annually and is available at the OIE website: www.oie.int/international-standard-setting/aquatic-code/access-online.

DISEASE WATCH HOTLINE

1800 675 888

The Disease Watch Hotline is a toll-free telephone number that connects callers to the relevant state or territory officer to report concerns about any potential emergency disease situation. Anyone suspecting an emergency disease outbreak should use this number to get immediate advice and assistance.

Preface

This Enterprise Manual for aquatic animal diseases is an integral part of the Australian Aquatic Veterinary Emergency Plan, or AQUAVETPLAN.

The manual aims to assist disease control operations in the field. It contains information that will be useful in all phases of a disease outbreak incident or emergency. The manual can be used in a variety of aquatic animal disease emergencies, including an exotic disease incursion or an outbreak associated with a previously unknown endemic agent.

The Enterprise Manual was the first of the series of AQUAVETPLAN manuals to be commissioned, in November 2000. The current version of the manual has been revised and updated to complement the other AQUAVETPLAN documents, which give further information on disease epidemiology, disinfection and disposal techniques, command structures, and response policies for selected diseases of aquatic animals. For information relating to diseases of terrestrial animals, refer to the series of AUSVETPLAN manuals (www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/programs/emergency-animal-disease-preparedness/ausvetplan).

This Enterprise Manual is aimed at both government and industry personnel who may be involved in emergency aquatic animal disease preparedness and response. The manual is designed to enable decision-makers to access information on industry practices and environments so that they can create applicable control strategies at short notice. The manual is also designed to inform industry personnel of the necessary steps and factors involved in decision-making under emergency conditions. As well, the manual should be used as a training and emergency briefing resource for officers working on an aquatic animal disease control programme who are not familiar with aquatic animals.

The Enterprise Manual is designed to complement, rather than replace, state or territory, industry, or farm operational emergency plans. The manual uses a generic approach to reflect the diverse nature of aquatic animal industries, and the wide diversity of disease agents and hosts that may be involved in an emergency situation. In many cases, little will be known of the disease agent, and so a control strategy may need to be developed very quickly using first principles and available knowledge. This Enterprise Manual will help to provide that knowledge.

The Enterprise Manual is a concise source of information on industry practices and structures. It outlines approaches that should be considered in the face of an aquatic animal disease emergency. The manual covers the entire range of aquatic animal industries and has been split into the following ‘systems’:

• 
  open systems: systems in which there is no control of either host movement or water flow (e.g. wild-caught fisheries)
  
• 
  semi-open systems: systems in which there is control of host movement but no control of water flow (e.g. net-pen culture)
  
• 
  semi-closed systems: systems in which there is control of host movement and some control of water flow (e.g. pond culture, race culture)
  
• 
  closed systems: systems in which there is good control of both host movement and water flow (e.g. recirculation aquaculture, aquaria).
  

The husbandry practices of a single industry may incorporate more than one of the above systems in different phases of production—for example, prawn culture, where wild broodstock is collected from an open system, hatcheries use a closed and/or a semi-closed system, and grow-out uses a semi-closed system. Section B provides further information on systems.

The Enterprise Manual has three sections:

• 
  Section A provides definitions and general response structures. It also includes a summary of the likely links and lines of communication during investigation of an outbreak or planning of a response.
  
• 
  Section B addresses industry-specific information needed for disease control or eradication.
  
• 
  Section C provides possible responses in the various systems to an aquatic animal disease emergency.
  

The Enterprise Manual has been designed to provide sufficient industry-specific information to enable timely and considered decisions to be made in response to an identified or unidentified aquatic animal disease emergency in any system. It does not address the actions to take if a particular disease occurs in a particular species. For these instances, relevant details may be contained in the disease strategies, operational manuals and management manuals. The full list of available AQUAVETPLAN manuals is as follows:

Disease strategies	Operational manuals
Abalone viral ganglioneuritis Crayfish plague Furunculosis Ostreid herpes-virus-1 microvariant	Disposal Destruction Decontamination
Piscirickettsiosis Infectious salmon anaemia	Management manual
Viral encephalopathy and retinopathy	Control centres management
Viral haemorrhagic septicaemia
Whirling disease	Enterprise Manual
White spot disease Withering syndrome of abalone	Includes sections on open systems, semi-open systems, semi-closed systems, closed systems

The format of this manual was adapted from similar manuals in AUSVETPLAN. The format and content have been kept as similar as possible to AUSVETPLAN documents, to enable animal health professionals trained in AUSVETPLAN procedures to work efficiently with this document in the event of an aquatic veterinary emergency. The work of the AUSVETPLAN writing teams and the permission to use the original AUSVETPLAN documents are gratefully acknowledged.

The revised manual has been reviewed and approved by the following representatives of government and industry:

Government

• 
  CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory
  
• 
  Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales
  
• 
  Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, Northern Territory
  
• 
  Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Queensland
  
• 
  Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania
  
• 
  Department of Fisheries, Western Australia
  
• 
  Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria
  
• 
  Department of Primary Industries and Regions, South Australia
  
• 
  Biosecurity Animal Division, Australian Government Department of Agriculture
  
• 
  Australian Government Department of the Environment
  

Industry

• 
  Manual sent to the National Aquatic Animal Health Industry Reference Group for comment
  

The complete series of AQUAVETPLAN documents is available on the internet (www.agriculture.gov.au/animal-plant-health/aquatic/aquavetplan).

How to use this manual

Don’t panic! This manual is not meant to be read from cover to cover.

The manual is divided into three user-friendly sections.

Section A provides general information on emergency responses.

Section B provides information on industry practices relevant to disease control.

Section C provides information on response options.

Appendixes provide information on Australian, state and territory legislation; seafood-borne disease in humans; diseases of concern; animal species currently used for aquaculture in Australia; use of drugs and other chemicals in aquaculture; and useful contact numbers.

1. Read Section A when you receive the manual.

2. Select the production system that relates to the current problem.

To determine which system you are considering, ask:

Is movement of the host controlled?

Is movement of the water controlled?

• 
  Open systems: systems in which there is no control of either host movement or water flow (e.g. wild-caught fisheries).
  
• 
  Semi-open systems: systems in which there is control of host movement but no control of water flow (e.g. net-pen culture).
  
• 
  Semi-closed systems: systems in which there is control of host movement and some control of water flow (e.g. pond culture, race culture).
  
• 
  Closed systems: systems in which there is good control of both host movement and water flow (e.g. recirculation aquaculture, aquaria).
  

Then select the appropriate section of the manual.

3. In the event of a disease outbreak, do the following.

Review Section A.

Read the part of Section B relevant to your industry.

Read Section C1 (general principles) and the section relevant to your industry and/or production system.

Check for relevant Disease Strategy manuals and other AQUAVETPLAN documents, when required.