Improving hatchery biosecurity for a sustainable shrimp industry in Bangladesh

水产养殖（水生动物和植物的养殖）是一个价值1430亿美元的国际产业，也是全球增长最快的粮食生产部门。它被认为是最可持续的动物蛋白来源，其可持续发展是满足不断增长的人口营养需求的关键。多年来，虾一直是最有价值的国际贸易食品商品之一，2016年占全球水产养殖出口业的主要部分（16%）（229亿美元）。在孟加拉国，虾业为大约1500万人（占人口的11%）提供粮食安全、收入和就业，是该国第二大出口产品，占其GDP的3.61%。该行业的增长主要是通过集约化耕作方法实现的，但没有以可持续的方式进行管理，导致疾病水平上升，并对环境产生重大影响。缺乏促进该行业快速集约化所需的资源、基础设施和知识，因此疾病已成为一个巨大的经济和社会问题。我们的团队一直在与国内合作伙伴合作，以帮助更好地了解影响该行业的疾病以及减轻未来疫情的方法。我们已经确定对虾孵化场是提高对虾养殖的经济、社会和环境可持续性战略的关键目标。孟加拉国考克斯巴扎尔地区的59个孵化场是该产业的基础：它们从当地的孟加拉湾收集成年虾，获取卵，将其培育成幼虾“种子”阶段，然后供应给全国15万虾农。因此，他们在维持整个行业方面发挥着关键作用。即便如此，目前它们的种子产量仍不足以满足需求，而且据估计，主要由于疾病的原因，它们的运行能力还不到产能的50%。我们的研究表明，孟加拉国很少有孵化场遵守标准操作程序，而标准操作程序已被证明可以减少疾病的发病率和传播，整个行业的管理做法差异很大。在这个项目中，我们将直接与孟加拉国25%的行业（15个孵化场）合作，并在孵化场过程的所有不同阶段对水和动物进行化学和生物测试（即致病微生物测试）。我们还将收集有关孵化场管理措施和财务记录的信息。这将使我们能够确定每个孵化场如何更好地预防和管理疾病暴发，同时最大限度地减少其对环境的影响。我们将访问每个孵化场，对所有员工进行生物安全培训，并展示收集到的数据，然后与他们合作制定定制的管理计划，然后我们将支持他们实施。我们还将跟踪这些“改良”孵化场生产的种子，看看它们在引入农场时，在生长和健康方面是否比标准种子表现更好。我们的部分工作将涉及与受助农民合作，培训他们以最佳方式将种子引入池塘，因为我们的工作表明，这是农业过程中造成最大经济和动物损失的环节。最后，我们将通过广泛的媒体传播项目成果，以促进孟加拉国各地采用这些做法。这将包括机构博客和网站，针对普通受众的简短在线视频，社交媒体，项目报告和同行评议文章，我们将在项目结束时举办利益相关者研讨会，邀请所有孵化场所有者和其他行业利益相关者参加。总的来说，我们的工作应通过降低疾病水平和改善对环境的影响，大大提高虾业的可持续性。

Aquaculture (the farming of aquatic animals and plants) is a US$143billion international industry and the fastest growing food production sector globally. It is thought to be the most sustainable source of animal protein and its sustainable development is key for meeting the nutritional needs of the expanding human population. Shrimp has been one of the most valuable internationally traded food commodities for many years, and accounted for a major part (16%) of the global aquaculture export industry in 2016 (US$22.9billion). In Bangladesh, the shrimp industry provides food security, income and employment for an estimated 15 million people (11% of the population) and is the country's second biggest export product, accounting for 3.61% of its GDP. Growth of the industry is largely through intensification of farming methods, but this is not being managed in a sustainable way, resulting in increased levels of disease and substantial environmental impact. The resources, infrastructure, and knowledge required to facilitate the rapid intensification of the industry are lacking, and as a result disease has become a huge economic and social problem. Our team has been working with in-country partners to help gain a better understanding of the diseases affecting the industry and ways in which it can mitigate for future outbreaks. We have identified shrimp hatcheries as a key target for strategies to improve the economic, social and environmental sustainability of shrimp farming. The 59 hatcheries in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh are the foundation of the industry: they collect adult shrimp from the local Bay of Bengal and acquire their eggs, which they rear to a juvenile "seed" stage before onward supply to the 150,000 shrimp farmers across the country. Thus, they play a key role in sustaining the entire industry. Even so, currently they do not produce enough seed to meet demand and are estimated to be operating at less than 50% of capacity, mainly due to disease. Our research has shown that very few Bangladesh hatcheries adhere to the standard operating procedures that have been shown to reduce the incidence and spread of disease, with management practices varying significantly across the industry.In this project, we will work directly with 25% of the industry (15 hatcheries) in Bangladesh and carry out chemical and biological testing (i.e. testing for disease-causing microbes) of the water and animals at all the different stages of the hatchery process. We will also collect information on the hatchery management practices and finance records. This will allow us to identify ways in which each hatchery can better prevent and manage disease outbreaks whilst minimising their environmental impact. We will visit each hatchery to train all staff on biosecurity and present the data collected, before working with them to produce a bespoke management plan, which we will then support them to implement. We will also follow the seed produced by these "improved" hatcheries, to see whether they perform better than standard seed when introduced to farms, in terms of growth and health. Part of our work will involve working with the recipient farmers, to train them in the best way to introduce seed into their ponds, as our work has shown that this is the point in the farming process which incurs the greatest financial and animal losses. Finally, we will communicate the outcomes of the project through a wide range of media, to promote the uptake of these practices across Bangladesh. This will include institutional blogs and websites, a short online video aimed at a general audience, social media, project reports and peer-reviewed articles, and we will hold a stakeholder workshop at the end of the project to which all hatchery owners and other industry stakeholders will be invited. Overall our work should significantly improve the sustainability of the shrimp industry, by reducing levels of disease and improving the environmental impact.