Aquaculture: Vaccination benefits highlighted at key events

A series of key aquaculture events and presentations have confirmed Schering-Plough’s ever growing presence and support in S.E. Asia. Aquaculture is continuing to develop at a pace in the region where the demand for Tilapia is especially strong. As producers look to establish long-term and sustainable operations, the focus on health management becomes crucial. Whilst the returns are attractive, endemic disease is a factor in Asia as much as anywhere else. Schering-Plough’s strategy is to work across all the major stakeholder groups with education and technical awareness programmes.

The company has a longstanding relationship with The World Aquaculture Society (WAS) which hosted this autumn’s key event, the WAS Asia – Pacific conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. The programme was very well attended and attracted a wide group of local and visiting delegates. Amongst the key speakers was Schering-Plough’s leading immunology and fish vaccine expert, Professor Patrick Smith who presented a highly informative paper which summarised the global successes of fish vaccine programmes.

Professor Smith highlighted how vaccine programmes are now impacting five key areas of world aquaculture. Sighting firstly pathology, he explained how the introduction of vaccine programmes had greatly reduced disease threat and burden across a wide spectrum of species. Welfare, an issue of increasing global focus correspondingly benefits from improved tools for disease prevention. Moving to the environment he confirmed the clear advantages of introducing vaccines to replace the number of chemicals and antimicrobials that have historically been required in disease control. The link between vaccination and nutrition, another key area in modern aquaculture, was highlighted with Professor Smith explaining that through improved health and well formulated diets farmed fish now have the ability to grow and convert to a level nearer their genetic potential. The fifth of these critical factors was that the benefits from the other key areas provided a range of significant commercial benefits ranging from improved cost of production through to the capability to build and sustain fish farming operations with control and confidence.

In addition to its exhibition stand which was continually busy, Schering-Plough hosted a number of private customer consultation sessions which enabled producers to discuss their production and health programmes one-to-one with the company’s technical and sales experts. “We have had very good feedback on these sessions at previous events,” explains Robin Wardle, Director of marketing and technical services with the company. “The opportunity to understand the issues that are currently facing operations in the area allows us to develop a dialogue on suitable vaccination strategies. WAS Hanoi was particularly successful in this respect and we have made firm commitments to follow up with specific visits to assist in establishing the most effective vaccination programmes to suit individual operations,” he confirmed.

Vaccination for Streptococcosis in Tilapia is one specific area where preventive programmes are delivering significant protection around the world. Schering-Plough Regional Technical Manager, Aries Madethen presented a technical paper reporting on recent trials conducted in Latin America and Asia using the company’s AquaVac Garvetil* and AquaVac Garvetil* Oral vaccines as part of the company’s Total Protection Strategy, a tailored programme to prevent disease through appropriate vaccination.

The trials demonstrate that AquaVac Garvetil, and AquaVac Garvetil Oral vaccines are safe and highly effective for use in Tilapia. They also demonstrated significant improvements in survival when the fish are exposed to a natural challenge. Added benefits in increased feed efficiency and the quality of production were also identified.

This theme continued at Tilapia 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia later in August where producers again registered an increasing interest in developing vaccination programmes. Robin Wardle sees Schering-Plough’s involvement increasing, “Our commitment is to continue to develop relationships with producers in the region and in addition to supplying vaccines we look to build and support long-term health programmes to help take their businesses forward.”

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Aquaculture: Vaccination benefits highlighted at key events