The ACPF provided a submission to the Australian Government (Department of the Environment and Energy) in response to the ProAqua P/L’s application to import specific pathogen free live Penaeus monodon broodstock from certified disease free hatcheries in Thailand or Hawaii into an Australian quarantine facility for breeding. ProAqua made the application as a means of managing the biosecurity risk to wild Australian broodstock.
The ACPF submission DID NOT support the application on the basis that:
- broodstock importation rules should not be reviewed until after the conclusion of the prawn Import Risk Assessment (IRA)
- improved prawn farm biosecurity investment is needed before introducing animals potentially affected by emerging and undetected disease that might affect the wild
- the risk of disease infection from external sources into farms is a risk that could bring undone the best plans for specific pathogen-free stock production, and
- there is no recent precedence for the importation of broodstock for breeding purposes in Australian aquaculture