Many fisheries and aquaculture industries around the world have suffered major production losses due to the impact of disease epidemics. Few major disease incidents have occurred in Australian aquaculture, and as a result, the Commonwealth, State/Territory governments and aquaculture industries have relatively little experience in incident management for emergency aquatic animal diseases. Through AQUAPLAN – Australia’s National Strategic Plan for Aquatic Animal Health 1998-2003 we have developed strategies and mechanisms such as the Aquatic Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases (Aquatic CCEAD) to provide advice on the management of disease emergencies in fisheries and aquaculture. Through the White Spot Virus incident in 2000-2001, however, it became apparent that the participants lacked the experience to effectively put into practice the CCEAD process.
The need for this education and training program can be summarized as follows:
1. Both government and industries have relatively little experience with real emergencies.
2. Industry and some government jurisdictions have little knowledge and understanding of the CCEAD process which is essential when dealing with an emergency.
3. In some jurisdictions there is a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of various individuals.
4. Industry has little experience on CCEAD and has not previously been a bona fide member of CCEAD.
5. Lack of experience of disease incidents has lead to a lack of understanding of the reasons for confidentiality and hence conformation to the confidentiality guidelines.
6. Lack of experience with the CCEAD process has lead to the misuse and abuse of the process for political mileage rather then disease incident management.