Traceability of fish and fishery products is critical for verifying the integrity of a supply chain, while ensuring the quality and safety of its products, their legality, or their origin from fisheries that are sustainably managed.

The benefits of traceability have been increasingly recognized by governments, consumers and various stakeholders throughout the value chain. Many countries have introduced mandatory traceability requirements as an explicit obligation to enforce food safety regulations. Traceability mechanisms are also critical to several market-oriented issues, such as catch documentation schemes to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing among others.

This is why traceability has been an important part of the agendas of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade (COFI:FT) since 2008. Most recently, the Committee on Fisheries (COFI), at its 34th Session, reiterated how traceability schemes play an essential role in combating IUU fishing and encouraging information exchange on catch documentation, in line with the Voluntary Guidelines on Catch Documentation Schemes (VGCDS).

This public consultation enourages you to review a Guidance Document that analyses the interrelationship of traceability with different components of the value chain, taking into consideration country-specific traceability mechanisms. The Document supports a standardized understanding of the Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) and Key Data Elements (KDEs) in capture fisheries and aquaculture value chains; it establishes authoritative sources of Key Data Elements (KDEs) and supports verification mechanisms. It contributes to FAO’s work for  the implementation of relevant recommendations of the 17th Session of the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade of the Committee on Fisheries (2019).

If you work for an international organization, a government entity, an academic institution, an NGO or a private firm along the fisheries and aquaculture value chains as primary producer, post-harvest actor, processor, distributor, service provider, we encourage you to review the Document. You can do it as individual or as a member of a group.

Please, share your views and provide your feedback using this online platform. If you prefer to communicate your comments by email, please contact: nada.bougouss@fao.org.

Feedback Period: 9 March to 12 April 2021 (midnight CET)
Click here to access the e-consultation.
For more information please contact: nada.bougouss@fao.org   

26 March to 15 April 2021

This training course carried out under the auspices of the FAO inter-regional project TCP/INT/3707: Strengthening biosecurity (policy and farm level) governance to deal with TiLV. Three countries are participating in this project, namely Colombia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. A 12-point checklist in the design and practical application of active surveillance of diseases in aquatic organisms (farmed and wild population) has been developed to serve as a methodological approach and guidance for a multidisciplinary team particularly in countries where surveillance expertise is limited. It is a stepwise and pragmatic approach that offers a good starting point for addressing disease issues especially in developing countries. It can be used as a model to build targeted surveillance competency and a basic reference when implementing a surveillance programme or improving existing programmes. The checklist is based on a review of available main aquatic surveillance references and scientific literature and was further developed based on the outcomes of several aquaculture biosecurity project-related workshops hosted by the FAO (Bondad-Reantaso et al. 2021).

The 12-point checklist includes the following:

1. scenario setting;
2. defining surveillance objective;
3. defining the populations;
4. disease clustering;
5. case definition;
6. diagnostic testing;
7. study design and sampling;
8. data collection and management;
9. data analysis;
10. validation and quality assurance;
11. human and financial resources and logistics requirements; and
12. surveillance in the bigger picture.

For a multidisciplinary team approach to disease control, knowledge of fish biology, aquaculture systems and many aspects of aquaculture health management and biosecurity are required. Surveillance needs significant financial investment and must be supported by adequate diagnostic capability, information system management, legal framework and communication networks, with transparent reporting mechanisms to allow rapid disease response for serious diseases of aquatic organisms. Thus, an appropriate design of the surveillance plan and practical implementation are very important.

The virtual course, that will use a combination of a webinar and moodle platforms, will run for 3 weeks starting from 26 March until 15 April 2021. The virtual course is funded by the abovementioned project with partial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation under the project GCP/GLO/979/NOR Improving Biosecurity Governance and Legal Framework for Efficient and Sustainable Aquaculture Production.

Further information can be obtained via email: Melba.Reantaso@fao.org

A list of reference materials is available here.

9-25 de marzo de 2021

Este curso de capacitación se lleva a cabo bajo el auspicio del proyecto interregional de la FAO TCP/INT/3707: Fortalecimiento de la gobernanza de la bioseguridad (a nivel de políticas y de granja) para hacer frente al TiLV. Tres países están participando en este proyecto, que son: Colombia, Filipinas y Vietnam. Se ha elaborado una lista de verificación de 12 puntos para el diseño y la aplicación práctica de la vigilancia activa de enfermedades en organismos acuáticos (poblaciones de cultivo y silvestres) para que sirva como enfoque metodológico y orientación para equipos multidisciplinarios, especialmente en países donde la experiencia en vigilancia en acuicultura es limitada. Es un enfoque de paso a paso y pragmático que ofrece un buen punto de partida para abordar los problemas relacionados con las enfermedades, especialmente en los países en desarrollo. Se puede utilizar como modelo para desarrollar competencias de vigilancia específicas y una referencia básica al implementar un programa de vigilancia o mejorar programas existentes. La lista de verificación se basó en una revisión de las principales referencias de vigilancia acuática disponibles y de la literatura científica, y se desarrolló más a fondo de acuerdo con los resultados de varios talleres relacionados con proyectos de bioseguridad acuícola organizados por la FAO (Bondad-Reantaso et al. Rev Aquac. 2021).

La lista de chequeo de 12 puntos incluye:

1. Definición del escenario;
2. Definición del objetivo de la vigilancia;
3. Definición de las poblaciones;
4. Agrupamiento de la enfermedad;
5. Definición de caso;
6. Pruebas de diagnóstico;
7. Diseño del estudio y muestreo;
8. Recolección y manejo de datos;
9. Análisis de datos;
10. Aseguramiento de la calidad y validación;
11. Recursos humanos y financieros y requerimientos logísticos;
12. Vigilancia en un marco general;

El enfoque de equipo multidisciplinario para el control de enfermedades, requiere conocimientos de la biología de los peces, los sistemas de acuicultura y muchos aspectos de la gestión sanitaria y la bioseguridad de la acuicultura. La vigilancia necesita una inversión financiera significativa y debe estar respaldada por una capacidad de diagnóstico adecuada, gestión de sistemas de información, marco legal y redes de comunicación, con mecanismos de notificación transparentes que permitan una respuesta rápida a enfermedades graves en los organismos acuáticos. Por lo tanto, un diseño apropiado del plan de vigilancia y la implementación práctica son muy importantes.

El curso virtual, con actividades de webinar y talleres virtuales en la plataforma Zoom, tiene una duración de 3 semanas a partir del 9 al 25 de marzo de 2021. El curso virtual está financiado por el proyecto mencionado anteriormente con el apoyo parcial del Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario ICA.

Mayor información a través del correo electrónico: Maria.ChauxEcheverri@fao.org Melba.Reantaso@fao.org

Una lista de materiales de referencia está disponible aquí .