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Improving Fish Health in the NCR by Integrating Extension with the Development of Alternative Disease Prevention Methods-Part II

Duration:
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Project Summary

Arming producers with practical means of improving farmed fish health in the North Central Region (NCR) was identified as a priority need during the 2020 NCR Aquaculture Roundtable Sessions. The ongoing USDA-NIFA NCRAC funded “Improving fish health in the NCR by integrating extension with the development of alternative disease prevention methods” grant yielded a pivotal survey of producers on fish health, which identified many needs and profound support for aquaculture veterinary outreach. Producers from eight NCR states have expressed strong support for Dr. Myron Kebus to continue to provide aquaculture veterinary outreach assistance in the NCR. Since January 2023, he has visited 22 farms, given 36 presentations at aquaculture/veterinary conferences, provided 220 consults to fish farmers and veterinarians, and conducted three major veterinary training workshops.  He has linked producers with fish farm veterinarians to reduce costly fish disease losses and obtain fish health certificates for shipping fish, which expands their sales. The grant team leveraged initial NCRAC resources, resulting in the long-term creation of an outreach veterinarian position funded by Michigan State University (MSU). Now armed with that support, what Dr. Kebus needs is only support for travel and supplies to continue greatly benefitting the aquaculture industry throughout the region. 

Objective(s)

The “Improving fish health in the NCR by integrating extension with the development of alternative disease prevention methods” NCRAC Grant team conducted a qualitative survey from April to October 2023 that had 30 questions in the categories of general farm description, farm specific fish health concerns, fish health help needs of farmers, prevention practices, diagnostic and treatment efforts, and the interview process allowed for other comments to be provided. Participants came from six of the twelve North Central states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri). While 65% of the fish farmers surveyed said they conducted regulatory fish health inspections, 44% had fish veterinarians, only 26% have written biosecurity plans, 11% vaccinate, 47% had disinfection protocols, and 4% use Veterinary Feed Directives for antibiotic use.  Fish health inspections are a legal requirement for moving fish to other states, and it appears to be the leading reason fish farmers seek veterinarians. Voluntary non-regulatory production medicine practices such as written biosecurity plans, vaccination, disinfection, and use of Veterinary Feed Directives use were relatively low.  These findings support the hypothesis that fish health practices in the NCR are largely driven by regulatory fish health inspection requirements, and non-regulatory production medicine efforts are under-utilized.  There are many fish farmers that currently do not use veterinary services.  It appears from the findings that they would benefit from veterinary services.  Dr. Kebus has begun to support veterinarians in the region who want to pursue fish farm veterinary services as part of their practice.  There appear to be opportunities for veterinarians who are well-trained in fish farm veterinary medicine and who understand fish farmer’s needs.  However, they need additional training and support from the regional Aquaculture Outreach Veterinarian (Dr. Kebus). The objectives in this proposal intend to build upon ongoing USDA-NIFA NCRAC funded efforts and address the issue highlighted in the survey findings. Efforts to increase the use of veterinarians, written biosecurity plans, vaccination rates, and disinfection rates, and use of antibiotics in a judicious manner will be pursued, documented, assessed, and reported.  To this end, the following objectives are proposed:

Objective 1. To provide direct assistance to producers through fish health consults on farms 

Objective 2. To assist veterinarians pursuing fish farm veterinary training by providing consults to veterinarians on farms that request their services. 

Objective 3. To conduct producer training workshops on farms to meet specific farm needs for individual farm staff. 

Objective 4. To conduct fish farmer and veterinary workshops at conferences and meetings. 

Objective 5. To present findings of issues and concerns of NCR fish farmers at national fish farm and veterinary conferences.

Duration:  3 Years (January 1, 2025-December 31, 2027)  

Participants

PI: Myron Kebus, Michigan State University, College of Veterinary Medicine

Project Outline

Proposal

Award Amount

$46,500

Award Number

2024-38500-42307