Centre for Aquatic Animal Health and Vaccines

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Fish Health Unit has expanded, with the integration of fish health diagnostic services with fish disease research, to create the Centre for Aquatic Animal Health and Vaccines.

The Centre plays a key role in promoting aquatic animal health and managing disease risk, with a focus on Tasmania's aquaculture industries. Together with the Animal Health Laboratory, we are involved in work from Hatch to Harvest: 

  • aquatic animal disease surveillance

  • health testing and disease diagnosis

  • research involving the development and testing of vaccines for bacterial and viral infections

  • research and development of responsive fish health diagnostic capabilities

​​The Centre is operated by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment with support from the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers' Association and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

Refer to the Cen​tre's Aquatic Animal Health and Vaccines strategic plan for more information.

Disease diagnosis and res​​earch activities

Major services provided and activities performed include:

  • providing a Fish Virology diagnostic service for salmonid fish based on virus isolation and culture on cell lines

  • participating in research projects dealing with fish health issues and in particular the development and testing of fish vaccines

  • producing MicroSys® kits for the identification of bacterial fish pathogens​​​​

Fish Vaccines

All enquiries about the supply of vaccines should be made to Salmon Tasmania​.

Fish Kills​​

For information regarding fish kills refer to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) website or the Unusual Signs in Wild Fish fact sheet:

 AHL LabFact Unusual Signs in Wild Fish (PDF 176Kb)

Contact

Centre for Aquatic Animal Health and Vaccines

Animal Health Laboratory - Specimen Reception
(Postal) PO Box 46,
Kings Meadows TAS 7249,
(Delivery) 165 Westbury Rd,
Prospect, TAS, 7250.