Mekong River Commission

Catfish aquaculture standards near completion

International standards for farmed shark catfish are moving closer to being finalised following a third dialogue meeting in Viet Nam

Over the past decade, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has initiated eight aquaculture dialogues to develop global standards for farming shrimp, salmon, molluscs, tilapia, pangasius, abalone, trout and seriola/cobia. The dialogues represent species that have the greatest impact on the environment, the highest market value or the heaviest trading in the global market. With more than 2,000 farmers, conservationists, government officials and others taking part, the dialogues are seen as the world's most inclusive and transparent process for creating measurable, performance-based standards for aquaculture. Draft standards for tilapia were posted for public comment in September last year and final standards are expected to be completed this year, almost four years and five meetings after the dialogue was launched in 2005. The Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue for shark catfish is expected to be shorter. Launched in Ho Chi Minh City in late 2007 (see Catch and Culture, Vol 14, No 1), the draft standards are expected to be posted for public comment during the first half of this year following a third meeting in Can Tho in December 2008. By early 2010, WWF hopes that all eight dialogues will have completed draft standards.

The draft standards discussed at the the recent Can Tho meeting are largely based on Viet Nam's experience as the world's largest producer, although they also reflect experiences in other producer countries which include China. The meeting, attended by more than 80 people, heard that standards will apply to all producing countries and every production system regardless of scale (in the Mekong Delta, the three production systems comprise ponds, pens and cages). Given that the standards are designed to be met by the top 20% in terms of industry performance based on current practices, others will have to modify their production systems in order to comply, which is expected to encourage innovation towards better performance. The standards are expected to be completed by the end of this year. David Graham of Birds Eye/Iglo, a British frozen foods distributor, told the meeting that they would promote profitable and sustainable growth and "protect the industry from catastrophic failure" while meeting demand for sustainable products and improving consumer confidence. Although they may later be expanded to more species, he said the standards would initially apply to the two main export species, Bocourt's catfish (Pangasius bocourti) and the Sutchi river catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) which was previously misidentified as Pangasius hypophthalmus. To add to the taxonomic confusion, both species are frequently marketed abroad as "pangasius" or sometimes even "basa", the Vietnamese name for the first species.

Water pollution, animal health and chemicals
The draft standards are designed to uphold eight principles including minimising the negative impact of pangasius farming on water resources by focussing on water quality, sludge, discharge, nutrient efficiency and water budgets (see Table 1 on page 17). The indicators proposed to address water pollution and waste management include total ammonia, dissolved oxygen and total phosphorus, which are three of six parameters used in a recent MRC assessment of water quality for aquatic life in the Lower Mekong Basin (see MRC Technical Paper No. 19).

In the area of health management, the standards are designed to implement measures to maintain healthy fish stocks and profitable activities by focussing on management efficiency and fish survival. It was felt by some stakeholders that "fish welfare" should be included in the standards. At the time of the December meeting, however, indicators were limited to survival rates and food conversion ratios during the growout period when the fish weigh more than 50g. The standards proposed for this period are a survival rate of more than 70% and an annual average of less than 2 for the economic feed conversion average, which is the volume of feed used divided by net fish production (biomass at harvest minus biomass stocked).

Table 1. Water pollution and waste management indicators

Indicator	Proposed standard
Total Ammonia (TAN)	<10 ppm
Dissolved Oxygen (DO)	4 mg/L or more
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5)¹	10 mg/L or less
Total Phosphorus (TP)	<5 mg/L
Quality of discharge water (parameter values)	No more than 110 % of water received
Direct discharge of sludge in public water bodies	Prohibited
Nutrient efficiency	64kg of nitrogen per tonne of fish²
Turbidity of total discharge	?
Amount of water used per tonne of fish	?

¹dissolved oxygen consumed in five days
²with nitrogen accounting for 4% of diet and a food conservation ratio of 1.6

Standards for antibiotics and chemicals are designed to uphold the principle of ensuring food safety and product quality while reducing the impact on the ecosystem and human health. With a focus on antibiotic and chemical use as well as residues in both fish and the environment, the dialogue had proposed four standards as of December (see Table 2 below). Participants agreed on the need for a fifth standard comprising a list of banned antibiotics and chemicals that takes into account international regulations and antibiotics for human use only. The meeting also agreed on the need to identify competent authorities such as fish health specialists to make veterinary prescriptions.

Ban on selective breeding seen as impractical
To address the issues of genetics and biodiversity, the proposed standards also include the principle of minimising the impact of pangasius farming on natural populations, local biodiversity and natural habitats. The proposed indicators are based on non-indigenous species and genetic diversity as well as biosecurity and escapees. To address the latter, measures proposed included appropriate bund height above high water or flood levels and traps on water outlets. However, some of the proposed standards were seen as problematic or impractical. One would prohibit pangasius farming in areas that do not already have an established population unless a "proper" risk assessment has been carried out. Another would require seed to be sourced from stocks drawn from pangasius populations already established in the "river system" used by the farms and yet another would prohibit the use of seed from genetically-modified organisms or hybrids. The most controversial proposal would require selective breeding, which has been strongly supported by Vietnamese authorities (see Catch and Culture Vol 13, No 2), either to be prohibited or have an undefined measure of similarity to wild stocks. This proposal was still under debate.

Table 2. Antibiotic and chemical indicators

Indicator	Proposed standard
Local regulations	Farmers must be able to prove that all antibiotics and chemicals are registered by local authorities to be used in aquaculture
Veterinary prescriptions	Antibiotics must be prescribed by either a licensed or identified animal health specialist for a diagnosed disease
Withdrawal after treatment	After any antibiotic or antiparasitic treatment, withdrawal periods must be respected according to product specificity. In the case of undocumented chemicals, the rule of 500 "degree days" must be applied (20 days at a water temperature of 25°C)
Documented control plan	Farmers must carry out a "documented analysis control plan" on fish before harvest and the environment (possible parameters include heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, malachite green and antibiotics)

"Introducing a standard against selective breeding is impractical, hinders industry progress, and does not necessarily contribute to genetic and biodiversity integrity," said Flavio Corsin, the senior aquaculture advisor to WWF. In a summary of the December meeting, he proposed that the issue could be addressed by additional better management practices to minimise the risk of selectively-bred pangasius escaping into the wild. Dr Corsin also noted that the indicators and standards proposed only dealt with pangasius genetics and did not cover biodiversity.

"New criteria, indicators and standards will need to be added to address this," he said. Moreover, "the idea of a risk assessment before allowing the introduction of a certain pangasius species to areas in which that species is neither native nor established is problematic. If the standards mean to prohibit farming in areas without native populations, we should simply do so. A higher degree of speci.city for how the standards approach the concept of 'local' stock, 'local' farm, and 'river system' is required." He also questioned whether sterile hybrids or all-male production should be included and noted that some stakeholders felt that genetically-modified organisms should not be permitted even if they are sterile.

The other four principles governing the eight issues being addressed by the dialogue include locating and operating farms within established national and local legal frameworks. In addition, farms should be located, designed and built to minimise negative impacts on other users and the environment and farrners should use feed and feeding practices that make efficient use of valuable feed resources and minimise waste. To address social responsibility and user conflicts, farms should be developed and operated in a sociallyresponsible manner that contributes effectively to rural development and poverty alleviation.

Doing their own thing
In the meantime, Dutch importer Anova Food BV has sought its own certification for pangasius farming and feed production from ISACert, a Dutch auditing and certification body which specialises in standards for agriculture and food processing as well as packaging and logistics. The "Anova Trace" certification is designed to achieve total control of the food chain so that each frozen catfish fillet imported to Europe can be traced. The "Trace Panga Management Program" includes feed programs, veterinary controls, environmental awareness, bacterial controls, checks on water quality and social standards. The "Trace Panga Supply Chain Control" includes controls on pre-mix and feed suppliers with Anova staff in Ho Chi Minh City regularly auditing suppliers to meet traceability standards. The company also applies strict controls on veterinary products and requires farmers to maintain complete up-to-date records on the origin of juvenile fish as well as feed and biomass. In addition, processors are subject to checks and audits. The certification, expected to be superseded when the global standards are in place, was announced in September last year, shortly after Anova signed a cooperation agreement with WWF to support sustainable fisheries in Indonesia, where the company buys tuna. Anova imports frozen Sutchi river catfish from Viet Nam, mainly skinless and boneless fillets but also fish that have had only their tails and fins removed. The Dutch company also imports frozen fillets of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) farmed in China and various cuts of freshly-caught Nile perch (Lates niloticus) from Lake Victoria in East Africa where it has an office in Kenya.

Further reading
http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/aquaculture/ pangasius-additionalresources.html

http://www.anovafood.com

MRC (2008) An assessment of water quality in the Lower Mekong Basin, MRC Technical Paper No. 19, Mekong River Commission, Vientiane, 70 pp