Brian Jones

Aquaculture facilities have an inherent risk of pest and pathogen introduction, exacerbation or spread. Biosecurity measures can be employed to effectively manage these risks. People involved at any level of the aquaculture industry play a vital role to New Zealand’s biosecurity system. Maintaining good on-farm biosecurity practices can minimise the potential impact of pests and pathogens to farms, sectors, the wider industry and New Zealand’s aquatic environment. Following good biosecurity practices demonstrates to others that the New Zealand aquaculture industry is a responsible user of the aquatic environment, reduces impacts to markets, and ensures New Zealand’s reputation for high environmental performance. To assist the commercial and non-commercial aquaculture industry to strengthen their onfarm biosecurity practices, the Ministry for Primary Industries, in collaboration with Aquaculture New Zealand, have produced this technical document and associated reference material and templates. This information can be found on the MPI website www.mpi.govt.nz. This document provides technical information, biosecurity objectives and best practice options to enable farmers to make informed decisions regarding their on-farm biosecurity management. The objectives and options are based on national and international “best practice” from both the regulatory and the aquaculture industry perspectives. These have been shown to successfully prevent or manage the introduction, exacerbation or spread of pests and pathogens on aquaculture facilities. This document provides information to enable the uptake of effective on-farm biosecurity management, including: suggested options to strengthen on-farm biosecurity management; identification of many, but not all, of the risk organisms associated with the species within document scope; and ideas to help protect your business, sector, industry and the New Zealand aquatic environment. This document does not set prescriptive measures, practices, rules or requirements on farmers. Biosecurity measures adopted by farmers should be practical and fit for purpose. The options identified within this document represent a starting point for the implementation of general on-farm biosecurity procedures for each farm based on their own site-specific conditions. Ideally each individual biosecurity procedure should be implemented with the understanding that it will work within a wider biosecurity plan.