HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND FARM PRACTICES IN THAILAND.

Thai shrimp and fish farmers are adapting new culture techniques in order to cope with recent disease challenges. A new concept of culture practices, referred to as the "5C" strategy, combines 5 basic hygiene concepts, i.e. Clean Seed, Clean Feed, Clean Water, Clean Pond & Bottom and Clean Environment. The combination of those 5 Clean concepts for aquaculture management in both shrimp and fish have proven to be effective in controlling the mortality and the production losses in Thailand.

Since years, Thai aquaculture suffers from a wide range of diseases such as WSSV, EMS, EHP, WFD in shrimp and Streptococcosis, Flavobacterium spp., Aeromonas spp. and a diversity of parasitic infestations in Tilapia. The concept of 5 C has been introduced to the farmers to change their attitude including their management regimen to overcome the problems.

The Clean Seed concerns the stocking of diseases-free fry, either by passing through diseases screening processes or by using only SPF / SPR certified fry. Furthermore, juveniles are pre-grown during a "Nursery phase " to pamper them for around 3-4 weeks until they are sufficiently strong to survive stocking in the grow out system.

The Clean Feed aims to recommend the farmers to use only a good quality feed which has a complete nutritional profile and includes health promoting feed additives to prevent infections and avoid using antibiotics. This includes a suitable feeding program and management, and good standard operation practices (SOP) of the nursery phase, such as oxygen and tanks management.

The Clean Water targets the most important part of aquaculture, i.e. controlling all optimum water quality parameters during their culture period, including water purification, disinfection, and the application of probiotics.

The Clean Pond & Bottom strategy aims at maintaining the conditions of the surrounding ponds and the bottom conditions throughout the crop including the waste management in the system both in the water column and in the bottom area to be as clean as it could be throughout the crop cycle. This requires the setup of centralized waste accumulation and sludge pumping machines since the waste proved to be a predisposing cause of the outbreak of diseases.

The Clean Environment considers the environmental impact caused by the farming operation. This includes the application of sludge treatment ponds and management procedures before discharging effluent water to the environment.  

The 5C concept is a strategy allowing 100 % biosecurity and is being introduced to the farmers as a set of preventive measures to exclude and control a wide diversity of pathogens including bacteria , viral carrier and vector and parasitic and protozoa spore etc.