a compliance study of Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture - The United ...

SerajMinimum Substantive Criteriacontamination. Preparation of feedon the farm should conform toregulations.Should only use approved drugs atapproved dosage prescribed byauthorised personnel. Banneddrugs should not be used.Should use water free of biologicalor chemical hazards. Farms shouldnot be located where there is a riskof such contamination.Should use the brood stock andpost larvae from a hazard freesource (in regards to antibiotics,parasites, etc.)Should ensure traceabilitydocumenting every inputs andsteps in the operation cycle.Bangladesh StatusThe current practices in coastal shrimp aquaculture systems did notmake use of many pharmaceuticals when confronted with diseases intheir stock. The large majority of shrimp farmers, both individuals andgroups, harvest the products as soon as the disease is found. Though theuse of drugs and antibiotics for disease control is uncommon, farmershave the tendency to use Thiodan (ingredients: endosulfan 35% andemulsifiers 65%), a kind of liquid insecticide, during preparation ofponds and with the appearance of diseases (Alam et al., 2005). Thedoses varied from farmer to farmer; as they did not know the correctdose and it is still not mandatory to have a prescription from authorisedpersonnel. The chemical companies are trying to market and sellproducts such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and inorganicfertilizers, to impede the outbreak of disease. There are shortcomings inthe official regulationof the use of drugs in ponds and aquaculturefarms. For instance, there is no recognized authority that is authorised togive such prescription still. There are claims of farmers using banneddrugs also. The formation of rules incorporating the use of drugs anddesignating a prescribing authority is under development.Water used in shrimp farms comes from natural sources like rivers andcanals and seem to be hazard free. Still there is risk of being crosscontaminated from one farm to another because several farms share asingle water source.Currently the gravid shrimps are collected from natural sources.Generally these mother shrimps are found in good health but sometimespoor handling measures in the trawler cause infection that ultimatelyaffects to the PL. Due to the severe outbreak of diseases (mostly viral)in recent years, there is a perception in the shrimp sector that the sourceof gravid shrimps may not be pathogen free and subsequent occurrenceof sickness is likely. For the same reason the hatchery PL are not muchtrusted as free of disease. There is reason to believe the marine watersare free of antibiotics.In recent years traceability has been a most important issue for exportproducts. The international buyers are very demanding about thetraceability of the product. It ascertains the information about every stepof the chain of custody of a product.To ensure traceability in the production cycle of shrimp, the governmentof Bangladesh has mandated registration of hatcheries from where thePL comes and registration of farms where the shrimps are grown up.Almost all farms and hatcheries are registered now (EU, 2007). Theinputs used in the production process and the steps through which theshrimp come to the processing plant and finally up to the consignment,are recorded as instructed by the directives of the EU and Bangladeshigovernment.Though policies are in place to ensure traceability, there are still a fewlimitations in the opinion of the European Union Mission in 2007 andthere are still several shortfalls to address the issue up to date.Should apply HACCP principlesduring culture to ensure goodhygienic culture conditions andsafety and quality of produce.The application of HACCP principles in processing plants startedseveral years ago, soon after the ban that the EU imposed in 1997. Mostof the processing plants are complying with the regulations controllingthe critical points of potential hazards.UNU-Fisheries Training Programme 40