The purpose of this two-day workshop is to provide a fora to share regional progress on animal health and management in finfish aquaculture and to identify priorities to enhance capacity in disease control and prevention. In particular, the workshop aims at:
- taking stock of regional progress in the field of finfish pathology, early diagnosis of pathogens in fish farms, disease surveillance, disease analysis and outbreak reporting;
- discussing challenges related to aquatic animal health regulations and governance, current regional capacity on control and prevention, epidemiological knowledge, risk management and analysis, diagnosis and monitoring;
- discussing sanitary biosecurity measures at the farm level, including the responsible use of registered, recorded and traceable medicines and vaccines;
- taking stock of applied standards for the prevention and control of contaminants along the aquaculture value chain for food safety;
- discussing risk analysis methodologies to be applied in Mediterranean and Black Sea aquaculture as well as the importance of monitoring and recording data that are not usually documented (e.g. on alien species, escapees, pathogens, drugs, feeds, safety indicators); and
- discussing issues and priorities in support of early diagnosis plans and identifying key elements for a guidance document on risk analysis methods and data recording in aquaculture.