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Australian prawn farmers are on excessive alert after the contagious and lethal illness white spot was detected at a second prawn facility in northern New South Wales.
The Division of Major Industries (DPI) first detected an outbreak on February 12 at a close-by prawn farm and imagine it unfold to the Yamba facility lower than two weeks later.
They’ve positioned a month-long management order on uncooked, raw crustaceans from the Clarence Estuary to offer authorities time to analyze the supply of the an infection.
Solely cooked prawns and polychaete worms might depart the area.
Though white spot doesn’t pose a risk to human well being, the illness is extremely infectious and may wipe out greater than 80 p.c of farmed prawn populations.
White spot spreads via the motion of contaminated animals or contaminated water and was first detected in 1992 when it ravaged Asian prawn farms and led to the digital collapse of the trade.
Widespread signs embrace a free carapace, excessive levels of colour variation on the prawn physique, and white calcium deposits which trigger 0.5-3mm shell spots.
Ponds and tanks struck by the epidemic might be crammed with teams of moribund prawns floating on the water’s floor and torpid crustaceans with no urge for food.
NSW chief veterinary officer Sarah Britton says the DPI has taken numerous measures to handle the problem.
“Biosecurity instructions are in place to eradicate white spot via accelerated destocking and destruction,” she mentioned.
This has posed a major problem for NSW prawn farmers.
Many have been pressured to cease work till the motion restriction is lifted, and swathes of prawns have been purged in an try to eradicate the illness.
The DPI has stored an in depth eye on the illness because it made its first Australian look in Queensland in 2016.
The one different outbreak previous to the February instances occurred in August 2022 earlier than it was eradicated a month later.
There is no such thing as a proof of energetic white spot an infection in wild prawn populations but, however hint ranges of white spot DNA have been present in wild prawns caught from the Clarence Estuary.
NSW prawns are secure for human consumption and may proceed to be purchased from native seafood suppliers.
-AAP
