Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Fisheries Science
Central Institute of Fisheries Education
Mumbai – 400 061
ADVANCES IN AQUATIC ANIMAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN FINFISH AND SHELLFISH
11-31 October, 2013
Infectious diseases are one of the major factors which limit aquaculture production.
Disease control and prevention in aquaculture is largely a function of management and
accurate and timely diagnosis of diseases play a significant role in the health management
strategies. Rapid expansion and intensification of aquaculture in the recent past has seen an
exponential increase in disease occurrence. There is an urgent need for research organizations
and researchers to focus their attention on development of efficient diagnostic tools. Lack of
trained human resources in this specialized field can prove to be a major hurdle in addressing
this problem.
With this background the Centre of Advanced Faculty Training (CAFT) in Fisheries
Science, Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) organized a 21 days programme on
‘Advances in Aquatic Animal Health Management in Finfish and Shellfish’ from 11-31 October,
2013.
The programme was inaugurated by Dr. R. Ezekiel, National Coordinator, NAIP, ICAR,
New Delhi on 11.10.2013. A total number of 17 participants enrolled for the CAFT programme.
These participants were from different parts of India viz Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, U.P., West Bengal,
Assam, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Manipur.
The pedagogy of the CAFT programme was interactions, lectures, hand on practicals and
field visits. Topics on which lectures were conducted were disease diagnosis past, present and
future, advances in disease diagnosis, defence mechanisms, haematology, viral, parasitic and
bacterial diseases of finfish and shellfish, immunodiagnostics, molecular diagnostics,
ultrastructural changes, monoclonal and polyclonal antibody production and uses, vaccination,
bioinformatics, PCR, Real time PCR, Statistical tools like SAS, IPR etc.
In addition to the CIFE Faculty, external experts including Dr. M. P. Yadav, Dr. C.
Vasudevappa, Dr. Sandeep K. Malhotra, Dr. P. Hari Babu and Dr. Dibakar Chakrabarty also
delivered lectures.
The trainees were taken to a field trip to National Mahaseer Hatchery, Tata Farm,
Lonavala. Interactions were held with the participants for various doubt and clarifications.
Dr. C. Vasudevappa, Dean, Agriculture University, Bengaluru was nominated by the
Education Division, ICAR, New Delhi to evaluate the training programme. He interacted with the
individual participant and the report will be submitted to ICAR directly him. In addition, the
feedback from the participants was taken at the end of the programme and was accorded as
very good by more than 90% of the trainees. The valedictory Programme was held on
31.10.2013. The Chief Guest was Dr. M. P. Yadav, Former Director, IVRI and Vice Chancellor,
Sardar Vallabhai Patel University and W. S. Lakra, Director/Vice Chancellor, CIFE presided over
the programme. The Chief Guest distributed the certificates to the participants. During the
valedictory programme the participants shared their experiences and appreciated the
programme.
A training manual was also provided to the participants which had a compilation of
lectures as well as practicals on various aspects of fish disease diagnostics, treatment etc. at
the start of the programme so as to have a reading material and ready reference. All lectures,
powerpoint presentations and reprints from Journals were given to the participants in a digital
form also to the participants. The Programme Director was Dr. W. S. Lakra, Programme CoDirectors were Dr. A. K. Pal and Dr. C. S. Purushothaman and Course Coordinator was Dr. K. Pani
Prasad.
Dr. W. S. Lakra, Director/Vice Chancellor, CIFE and Dr. R. Ezekiel, National Coordinator, NAIP,
ICAR releasing the training manual during the Inaugural Programme
Group Photo
Dr. M. P. Yadav, Chief Guest distributing the certificate to the participant
during the Valedictory Function