Jump to content

Tilapia Biocontrol


rayke1938

Recommended Posts

Good to see just hope it succeeds.

Home > Research > Tilapia biocontrol

Tilapia biocontrol

Summary

Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) are listed in the top 100 of the world’s worst alien invasive species. Both Mozambique tilapia and black mangrove or spotted tilapia (Tilapia mariae) are established in Queensland. Their impacts on natural ecosystems threatens both fishing and tourism industries. The impact of tilapia is currently largely in Queensland but recent incursions in northern New South Wales have caused concern.

While we now have an effective surveillance tool (eDNA) developed under the stewardship of the Invasive Animal CRC for early detection and mapping the distribution of tilapia, current management mechanisms are inadequate for control of tilapia once an incursion has occurred. Indeed, it is now clear that current education programs are failing to stop the spread and options for management post-incursion are extremely limited.

Thus, there is a need to research, develop and evaluate potential tilapia control agents. Recently, the tilapia lake virus (TiLV) isolated from tilapia has caused widespread mortalities in Israel and Ecuador and since then has been reported in a number of other counties. This has raised hopes of the potential for tilapia biocontrol, however, prior to significant research investment in assessing this particular agent, it is prudent to evaluate tilapia pathogens in the context of biocontrol more broadly. Thus, this project proposes to conduct a review of tilapia pathogens and assess their potential as biocontrol agents.

Status

In progress

Objectives

Desktop review of tilapia pathogens, where they will be listed, ranked. With the specific objective to provide an assessment of biocontrol options (including TiLV) for Mozambique tilapia ( mossambicus) and spotted tilapia (T. mariae).

Benefit-cost analysis of tilapia biocontrol.

Business case for investing in the research (e.g. target susceptibility and specificity) necessary to gain approval for the release of an agent.

Develop capability to work with potential biocontrol agents for tilapia in Australia.

Determine the susceptibility of two tilapias species present in Australian waterways ( mossambicus and T. mariae) to TiLV and demonstrate the efficacy of TiLV as a potential biocontrol agent for tilapia in Australia.

Project Leader


 

Dr Agus Sunarto

Project Team

Agus Sunarto, CSIRO

Ellen Ariel, JCU

Bonnie Holmes, USC

Jessica Grimm, UON

Project Partners

CSIRO

QDAF

JCU

USC

The project receives funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment

Outputs

February 2021 update:

Tilapia Lake Virus has been considered as a potential candidate for biocontrol and has been proposed for further investigation. Another candidate for possible further investigation is the newly emerged tilapia parvovirus (TiPV), this virus has been reported to cause 60-70% mortality rate across six provinces in China, however the species specificity of TiPV has not been reported. All other potential pathogens assessed have been shown to not be species specific to tilapia and are therefore less suitable candidates for biocontrol.

A cost benefit analysis has commenced, this review seeks to identify the current distribution of tilapia in Australia, past and current management/control practices, existing impacts of tilapia on Australian waterways and the likely spread and impact in Australia based on current management systems.

Privacy

 

Sitemap

©2021 Centre for Invasive Species Solutio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like a,very worth while project Ray .
There’s some very clever people at CSIRO . Hopefully they get plenty of funding and support to find a way to get rid of the tilapia. Carp could  be next on the hit list. Wouldn’t it be great to see our water ways run clear again , giving our native species a fair chance of survival.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 30/06/2021 at 6:30 AM, Drop Bear said:

Interesting. I expect one day they will find a way to get rid of pest species. I am glad CSIRO is on the job. Then they can start on cats and foxes and toads and a very long list. 

Thanks for the update. 

It’s good they are clearing out the tillies Ray. Or trying to anyways. 
Robbie, I agree with you. I cannot wait until when there is only, or at least a large majority, of Aussie Natives left in the wild.

Cheers Hamish

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...