Colombia declares emergency sanitary situation due to virus on aqua farms

A public health emergency has been declared in Colombia due to the spread of a new serotype strain of Streptococcus agalactiae infecting tilapia in aquaculture. Subordinate to Rosselkhoznadzor, the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NTsBRP”, in a message that sfera.fm got acquainted with, indicates that, according to experts, the entire national tilapia production industry in the country is under threat. At the same time, there is a risk of the virus spreading to other countries. The fish farming industry in Colombia produces about 140,000 tons of tilapia annually. Mortality on some farms already reaches 40%. Colombian authorities have allowed the import of a batch of experimental vaccine from Africa, where this strain of the virus has previously spread, but note that vaccination is only part of the overall package of measures that must be taken on farms to prevent infection of fish. The difficulty in infecting the virus in fish farming is that ponds and lakes cannot be ...