Biosecurity Queensland has appointed an expert panel to manage aquatic disease outbreaks like white spot disease and provide strategies to bring banned prawn farms back to business by the end of the year.
In December, the commercial and recreational take of crustaceans like prawns and crabs was banned in the Logan River, while five aquaculture farms were shut down as the threat of spreading white spot disease grew.
Chief Biosecurity Officer Dr Jim Thompson said three leading experts were selected to the panel based on their expertise in aquatic animal health and disease management, specifically white spot disease.
“They will provide an objective assessment of the options available and use their experience to provide advice to ensure we achieve the best possible outcome,” said Dr Thompson.
“At our first meeting with them last week the panel was provided detailed information on the response to date and we are expecting their initial assessment report soon.”
The establishment of the panel comes as prawn industry and government representatives met last week, to discuss the response to white spot disease and assess timelines when affected businesses could begin to re-stock their farms
“We discussed options that might allow the infected properties to be back up and running in time for the next production season that commences in October,” Dr Thompson said.
“While this is an ambitious goal, it is crucial that the impacted farmers are able to return to production as quickly as possible, and that is our focus.
“There is still a long way to go and many hard months ahead before we will be confident that white spot disease doesn’t pose a risk.”
