Online Fish Health Certificate Program for Fish Culturists

Recent events in fish health and disease detection have shown that fish culturists are at the forefront of disease management and prevention when newly emerging diseases impact fish culture through detection and regulation.  Educating culturists on disease prevention and control can help them reduce disease risks and protect their production investment.  An online Fish Health Certificate Program for fish culturists was developed to assist culturists with relevant risk assessment and management principles and to reduce losses due to fish diseases.  The program consists of six modules that are part of an asynchronous learning program designed to educate and inform culturists so they can be an active member of the fish health team.

The six modules are: 1) Introductory principles and practices about fish production, culture systems, and state and federal regulatory agencies involved in fish culture. 2) Risk management and biosecurity methods that can assist culturists in reducing the risk of disease introduction at fish production facilities. 3) Water quality management and monitoring and its role in disease prevention. 4) Fish health inspections, with an emphasis on what the culturist can expect at an inspection and how the culturist can prepare and assist in an inspection. 5) Veterinary health assessments and reports and how the culturist can use the information to improve fish health management at their facility. 6) Case studies, real examples of how water quality, environmental conditions, and pathogens can cause disease outbreaks and how solutions were found.  The "free" program can be accessed at: http://www.vetmedce.org