Biosecurity in tilapia production

Chadag Vishnumurthy Mohan and Jérôme Delamare-Deboutteville

WorldFish, Malaysia
 Background
• Three genera in the family Cichlidae
referred to as tilapia
• Oreochromis (maternal mouth brooders)
• Sarotherodon (paternal mouth brooders)
• Tilapia (substrate spawners)

• Native to Africa, but moved for farming to

over 90 countries in tropics and sub-
tropics

• Genus Oreochromis most farmed

• O. niloticus – Nile tilapia
• O. mossambicus - Mozambique tilapia
 Tilapia is
the second most farmed fish
in the world after carps

Genetically improved tilapia strains contributing

significantly to global production
 Top producers

2000 - 1.27 million mt tilapia produced

2015 - 6.4 million tonnes, value of USD 9.8 billion, and

worldwide trade was valued at USD 1.8 billion (FAO, 2017).
 Improved tilapia strains currently farmed
• Systematic selective breeding and genetic improvement
programs began with the work of WorldFish and partners in
1988 and has led to the development of several improved
strains
• Oreochromis niloticus in Asia (GIFT strain)
• Oreochromis niloticus in Egypt (Abbassa strain)
• Oreochromis niloticus in Ghana (Akosombo strain)
• Oreochromis shiranus strain.

• Several GIFT-derived and other improved strains have been

developed and disseminated for farming.
• Genetically Male Tilapia (GMT) / YY Male Tilapia (Fishgen)
• Genomar Supreme Tilapia (GST)
• Genetically Enhanced Tilapia – Excellent (GET-EXCEL)
• Brackishwater Enhanced Saline Tilapia (BEST)
• SEAFDEC Strain and TAGALOG Strain
• Chitralada
• FAST
 Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT)

• WorldFish Flagship product

• Grows 50 to 80% faster,
• High survival
• Sent to 10+ countries
• Philippines, 70% of market
• ‘GIFT-technology’ used in other regions

Future focus

• traits related to resilience (disease, growth in

stressed environments; better integration of
health and feed efficiencies).
 Key tilapia pathogens/diseases

• Bacterial
• Streptococcus agalactiae,
• Streptococcus iniae
• Aeromonas hydrophila,
• Aeromonas veroni

• Viral
• Tilapia iridovirus
• Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV)

• Fungal
• EUS

Tilapia generally perceived as hardy and resilient

Except EUS, no other listed tilapia disease in OIE code
 Why of concern?
• Tilapia lake virus (TiLV) – a serious emerging pathogen
• Wild reported affected
• Sarotherodon (Tilapia) galilaeus
• Tilapia zilli
• Oreochromis aureus
• Tristamellasimonis intermedia
• Farmed reported affected
• Nile tilapia (O. niloticus)
• Hybrid tilapia (O. niloticus x O. aureus hybrids)
• Red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.)

• Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS) – serious disease affecting wild

inland fisheries
• three-spotted tilapia (Oreochromis andersoni)
• greenhead tilapia (Oreochromis machrochir)
• redbreast tilapia (Coptodon (Tilapia) rendalli)
• banded tilapia (Tilapia sparrmanii)
 Biosecurity essential to protect tilapia aquaculture

Understanding tilapia farming life cycle is essential to analysing biosecurity risks and come up
with biosecurity solutions suitable at farm, local, national and international levels
Dissemination strategies for genetically improved strains

Number of fish increasing

 Quality seed
Productive, healthy seeds that are available to farmers in the quantities, sizes and at the
time farmers need them

Quality breeds and broodstock Inputs

& Services

Quality seed produced by hatcheries

Production

Quality seed delivered to farmers Transport

Quality seed used by farmers Marketing

genetics is only part of it, improved stock not necessary for producing quality seed
 Improved seed
Productive, healthy seeds that are available to farmers in the quantities, sizes and at the
time farmers need them

Quality breeds and broodstock Inputs

& Services

Quality seed produced by hatcheries

Production

Quality seed delivered to farmers Transport

Quality seed used by farmers Marketing

genetic improvement is a necessary component

 Seed dissemination programs
• Overall biosecurity considerations minimum
• Seed certification and accreditation systems largely absent
• Systems for screening broodstock and seed for specific list of pathogens not in place
• SPF and SFR initiatives not there yet
• Selective breeding and genetic improvement programs have till recently focused only
on fast growth
 Tilapia farming systems

• Very diverse farming systems

• Polyculture/monoculture
• Integrated agriculture
• Ponds
• Homestead ponds
• Cages
• Community tanks

Farming systems less amenable to

implementation of farm level
biosecurity principles and practices
 Perception, awareness, capacity and resources – special
attention needed for small holder farmers
Tilapia perceived as hardy and resilient fish; less attention paid to routine pond side
observations, documentation of clinical signs and mortality information, reporting and
seeking assistance.
 Simple and practical biosecurity resources and capacity
building needed to support small holder farmers and hatchery
operators
 Biosecurity essential all along the farming cycle

• Critical for protection of valuable stock

• Necessary for protection of stock in the production system
• Necessary for protection of zones, regions, country that are free of particular diseases

Security at different levels:

• Nucleus breeding center: HIGHEST

• Multiplier hatcheries: STRONG
• Production systems: BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

System of disease testing; hatchery certification; enforcement processes.

CONTROL OF GERMPLASM MOVEMENT

 Global research partnership needed to better inform
development and implementation of biosecurity interventions
Tilapia epidemiology and health economics – Online Tool
The CGIAR Research Program
on Fish Agri-Food Systems
(FISH) with the support of the
Norwegian Veterinary Institute
(NVI) and Cefas has developed
a survey to assess epidemiology
and health economics of tilapia
farms in Bangladesh, Egypt and
Zambia.
 Survey in a nutshell

1. Enumerator information 11. Water quality parameters

2. Consent 12. Biosecurity
3. Location 13. Baseline mortality records
4. Units 14. Handling of dead fish
5. Farmer/production system 15. Treatment use(s)
information 16. Unusual mortality information
6. Water management & 17. Disease & laboratory investigation
practices 18. Economics
7. Stock type 19. Feral/wild tilapia mortality
8. Feed & fertilizer 20. Supporting photograph evidences
9. Stocking information 21. Additional notes
10. Shared water body 22. End of the survey
 Current research & technology
Identify conditions for disease emergence
• The pathobiome – microbial agents (eukaryote, prokaryote, viral),
interacting with the host (and sometimes with each other), leading to a
pathological response or reduction in fitness of the host
• Metagenomic sequencing – using sequencing methods to understand
microbial assemblages of the pond (eDNA) and the host and how they
relate to disease conditions in the pond.

Understand vertical transmission (e.g. TiLV)

Develop non-invasive health screening diagnostic

Shrimp MultiPath technology

Developed by Genics quantitatively detects 13 shrimp pathogens in one
test (SNPs analysis) at high sensitivity levels

Tilapia MultiPath next ???

 Compliance to Codes of Practice
Essential for dissemination of genetically improved tilapia for improved biosecurity governance
 International vs. national contexts for biosecurity

Effectiveness of biosecurity implementation would vary depending on where it is applied

(farm/hatchery/national/international)

Application from the national CA level looks more feasible

Considerations/Recommendations for improved biosecurity in
tilapia aquaculture

• Short and medium term priorities

Breeding platform
Biosecurity assessment and measures to fill the gaps and identified risks
Development and implementation of SOPs including regular health assessment of
stock
System of screening and certification to ensure dissemination of only clean stock

Farming system
Awareness and capacity building of farmers to implement better management
practices (BMPs) and simple farm level biosecurity

Research
Epidemiological studies for risk identification and economic impact assessment
Considerations/Recommendations for improved biosecurity in
tilapia aquaculture
• Long Term

Breeding platform
Fully bio-secure breeding platforms with system of certification

Farming system
Validated package of practice for minimizing the impact of diseases in tilapia farming

Research
Genetics and Disease resistance to produce TiLV resistant strains
Rapid diagnostic (mobile platform enabled diagnostics)
SPF and SPR stocks plus vaccines
 Summary

• Tilapia is very important for food and nutrition security, livelihoods and income for
rural households in Asia and Africa
• Importance attached to biosecurity and health management must be at the same
level as for shrimps and salmon
• This calls for a massive change in the way farmers, researchers and policy
makers treat carps and tilapia with respect to overall biosecurity and health
management.
THANK YOU