Overview of the Disease Situation and Surveillance in Europe In 2011

The Questionnaire on Surveillance and Diagnosis (S&D) which is collated annually is the only comprehensive overview of the disease situation in aquaculture in Europe. The information has been made available on the EURL web site (www.eurl-fish.eu), where all raw data can be obtained. The S&D have evolved over the years, for 2011 it comprise 4 parts: 1.

General data on production type and size, health categorization of fish farms according to Council Directive 2006/88/EC, and information on national surveillance programmes. 2. Epidemiological data on the disease situation in each Member State with focus on the listed diseases but also including other diseases of interest. 3.

Laboratory data from the NRLs and other laboratories, including number of samples examined, diagnoses of fish diseases made. A new part was included for 2011 as a deliverable for the EFSA project CFP/EFSA/AHAW/2011/03: Risk categorisation for Aquatic Animal Health Surveillance: 4. Status on implementation of the new fish health surveillance legislation.

The data on the European aquaculture production were obtained from the FIGIS database. Unfortunately this database does not include information on the number and size of fish farms, which are epidemiologically important data. The production in 2010 is almost the same as in 2009 and has for the sixth time in row raised from the previous year and has now passed 2 million ton (Figur 1) Data from 2011 is not yet available.

The farm sizes vary a lot between countries, e.g. the majority of farms in Germany produced < 5 tonnes, and for Spain the number of farms producing < 5 tonnes, 5-100 tonnes and > 100 tonnes is nearly equal. The Atlantic salmon production has increased significantly while the rainbow trout production slightly decreased in Europe in 2010.

The carp production is still mainly in the Eastern part of Continental Europe and at the same level as the year before. The production of sea bream decreased while the sea bass production increased in the Mediterranean countries. Among other fish species of interest are pike-perch (472t), eel (6845t), sturgeon (3545t), cod (22558t), turbot (8348t), and halibut (1821t).

Unfortunately none of these species have observed the foreseen significant increase in production. Data on the health categorisation of fish farms will be given in a later presentation. Concerning the epidemiological data, obviously, there is still a severe underreporting of VHS and IHN in many countries.

For VHS the infection status in only known for 33% of the farms, for IHN the situation is known in 37% of the farms. While for KHV the disease situation is unknown on 954% of the farms! For farms producing Atlantic salmon and categorised for ISA, the infection status for ISA is known for 49% of the farms.

The findings of Isavirus HPR0 pose some problems regarding the health categorisation of salmon farms. Many countries have surveillance programmes for SVC (16 of 35 countries), BKD (14 of 35 countries), IPN (18 of 35 countries) and Gyrodactylus salaries (8 of 35 countries), for which they are seeking “additional guaranties” according to §42 in CD 2006/88/EC.

The number of farms in the programmes varies from very few farms to many farms. There are very large differences between countries on how many samples are tested on cell cultures, ranging from < 100 to several thousands. PCR is coming up in many countries, and the large number of PCR-tests conducted in some countries mostly reflects the KHV and ISA testing.