THE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned of an outbreak of a highly-contagious disease among farmed and wild tilapia. Although the Tilapia Lake Virus (TiLV) does not pose a risk to humans, it can decimate stocks and cripple fish farmers.
"The disease shows highly variable mortality, with outbreaks in Thailand triggering the deaths of up to 90 percent of stocks. Infected fish often show loss of appetite, slow movements, dermal lesions and ulcers, ocular abnormalities, and opacity of lens," the FAO reported.
The TiLV has been confirmed in five countries already: Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel, and Thailand, the FAO reported in its website. Tilapia is one of the world's most important fish for human consumption and is a mainstay of global food security and nutrition. The special alert was released last May 26 by FAO's Global Information and Early Warnings System.
"Tilapia producing countries need to be vigilant, and should follow aquatic animal-health code protocols of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) when trading tilapia. They should initiate an active surveillance programm to determine the presence or absence of TiLV, the geographic extent of the infection and identify risk factors that may help contain it," the FAO warned.
The FAO also encouraged countries to launch public information campaigns as many aquaculturists of tilapia are smallholders.
TiLV surveillance is now being conducted in China, India, and Indonesia, and is also being planned in the Philippines, FAO said.
The FAO itself admitted that not much is known about TiLV, acknowledging many knowledge gaps about the disease that need more research.
The TiLV belongs to the Orthomyxoviridae family of viruses, which is also the same family to which the Infectious Salmon Anaemia virus belongs, which wrought great damage on the salmon farming industry, FAO added.