Loo Jang Jing and Lim Lian Chuan, Freshwater Fisheries Centre, Agri-food and Veterinary Authority, Singapore
This paper was presented by the
authors at the seminar: Serving you Better in the New Millennium, held
on 5 May, 2000, during Interzoo 2000, Nuernberg, Germany.
The increase in international
trade of ornamental fish over the years poses a great challenge to
national authorities in their vigilance against the potential
establishment of exotic aquatic diseases in their countries.
This
has prompted many importing countries to impose more stringent health
requirements on the incoming fish, with particular emphasis on the
specific disease-free status of the originating source. Over the years,
the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore, formerly
known as the Primary Production Department (PPD), has been working
closely with Singapore's exporters in ensuring that Singapore export
consignments meet the increasing demand on fish quality and health
status.
AVA's quality assurance programmes aim
to provide a credible and all-rounded approach towards the promotion of
good hygienic and sanitation practices within the packing premises of
the exporters. Emphasis is placed on the exporters' abilities to
maintain an established standard of practice and a proper documentation
process. AVA monitors these premises through regular inspections and
water and fish samplings to ensure compliance and provides technical
advice on quality and health management matters. These programmes,
hence, offer a comprehensive assurance of quality and fish health
status for the export of Singapore ornamental fish to the global
markets.
Fish Health Certification Programme
Certification
is fast-becoming a prerequisite for international movement of aquatic
animals and a means of facilitating trade among countries. AVA is the
only authority in Singapore to provide fish health certification
services to the ornamental fish trade and industry.
Singapore exporters export an average
of 50 ornamental fish consignments daily. It is therefore not practical
for AVA officers to inspect every export consignment. In 1999, AVA
issued more than 12,000 health certificates for ornamental fish
consignments that were exported to some 70 countries. The issuance of
most of these certificates was primarily based on a good and reliable
system of inspection and monitoring of the ornamental fish export
premises where packing of the consignment was carried out.
Accredited Ornamental Fish Exporters' Scheme
The Accredited Ornamental Fish
Exporters' Scheme was implemented by AVA in 1983 to encourage Singapore
exporters to export fish of high quality and clinically free of
diseases through maintenance of high standard of hygiene and sanitation
in their packing premises. The Scheme enables exporters with good
management practices to obtain accreditation for their export premises
so that they can obtain health certificates based on track record of
their management practice of good hygiene and sanitation and fish
quality, rather than on a consignment basis.
Membership:
Admission to the Scheme is voluntary and through application. Companies
applying for membership of the Scheme must be licensed under the
Import, Export or Transshipment of Ornamental Fish Licence by AVA.
Prior
to the approval of membership, the premises are subjected to initial
screening by AVA, including inspection of the premises and fish stock,
water sampling for laboratory examination and checking of the records
of fish sales maintained by the company. There must not have been any
history of fish disease occurrences or of any gross mortality in fish
stocks in the packing premises during the one month preceding the
commencement of membership.
Only companies whose packing premises
have met the terms and conditions of the Scheme can be admitted to the
Scheme. Each member admitted to the Scheme is awarded a serially
numbered certificate. Members can then quote their certificate numbers
in their trade transactions to identify themselves as members of the
Scheme. Almost all major exporters in Singapore, numbering more than
40, are members of the Scheme. The export consignments from these
exporters account for more than 90% of the total ornamental fish
exports from Singapore.
Code of Practice:
Since its implementation in 1983, the Accredited Ornamental Fish
Exporters' Scheme has undergone several reviews to improve the
certification procedure so as to meet new requirements ine importing
countries. In 1997, AVA, for example, incorporated a Code of Practice
into the Scheme. The Code of Practice provides guidelines on the
management of incoming and outgoing fish, routine care of fish held in
premises, packing of fish for export and maintenance of packing
premises. In addition, members also have their own quality control
measures to ensure that only good quality and healthy fish are included
in their consignments.
Salient Features of the Code
Maintenance of packing premises:
Members are to ensure that the premises are kept clean at all times. To
minimise the risk of contamination from outside the premises, members
must provide disinfecting foot-baths or a disinfectant mat at all
entrances to the areas designated for conditioning of incoming fish.
Concentration of the disinfectant must be checked regularly.
All premises are supplied with potable
water used for packing the fish. This ensures that the packing water is
free from pathogens and contaminants. No birds, dogs and cats must be
kept within the premises, as these could transmit pathogens into the
premises. No cooking of food should be carried out in the packing
premises.
Management of incoming fish:
Fish must be unpacked promptly in dim or red light conditions, and
acclimated to water quality conditions in the holding facility. New
fish should not mix with old stock and need to be conditioned for at
least 48 hours before export.
Care of fish:
Fish must not be subjected to rapid fluctuation of light and water
quality unnecessarily. All aquaria must be clearly labelled and sited
appropriately to facilitate visual inspection and minimise
interference. Aquaria must be checked daily, with uneaten food and dead
animals removed and cleaned regularly. Fish stocking density must not
be too high so as to minimise crowding stress. Fish must be fed
regularly at appropriate feeding rate and feeds must be kept under
hygienic conditions.
Disease Prevention and Treatment:
All nets, tanks and equipment must be disinfected and individual nets
must be used for each tank to prevent outbreak and spread of disease.
Fish showing sign of distress, injury and disease must be treated. Sick
fish must be isolated from the healthy ones and must not be exported.
Drugs must only be used when necessary
and its usage must be closely supervised and in accordance with good
husbandry practice. Record of d isease outbreaks, treatment and
mortality need to be maintained.
Water quality management:
The filtration system must be checked and maintained regularly. Quality
of tank water must be checked regularly and managed so as to meet the
optimal standard. The criteria of the standard include dissolved
oxygen, pH, free ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Packing of Fish for Export:
Members miust ensure that fish packed for export are clinically free of
any external sign of disease. Before packing, fish must be carefully
examined and unhealthy or poor quality fish must be rejected. All the
fish for export must be conditioned and prophylactically treated
whenever possible.
Members must ensure that their
consignments are packed in a manner that ensures good survival of the
fish up to at least 95% for the anticipated journey time. Only new
materials must be used for packing. Only potable water must be used for
packing freshwater fish.
Shipment of consignment: Members must make all reasonable efforts to expedite the clearance of the consignment and transport to its destination.
For example:
a) Fish and plants must be packed in
separate boxes under separate packing lists to avoid delay in custom
clearance in the importing country.
b) Any bags of chemicals included in the fish consignment must be declared in the packing list.
c) For export of CITES listed fish
species, members must ensure that the appropriate import and export
permits are obtained from the authority and these documents must
accompany the shipment.
Complaints from importers/buyers: Members must deal promptly with complaints from importers/buyers and provide quality service at all times.
Recording system:
To enable tracing of the movement of fish in cases of any disease
outbreak(s), members must maintain records of purchases and sales from
suppliers and to purchasers for, at least 3, months. This is an
important feature of the Code of Practice. If possible, the records
should be in the form of a database.
Specific Disease-free Status Certification
To
ensure that members set a high standard of hygiene and sanitation in
their premises, officers from AVA inspect and monitor the premises
regularly and provide the exporters with technical advice on fish
packaging techniques and health matters. They conduct routine sampling,
check the conditions of the packing premises, test the water quality,
inspect the fish stock and consignments, and check the records of fish
sales maintained by the members. AVA takes the results of routine
inspection into consideration in issuance of Fish Health Certificates
for outgoing ornamental fish consignments by members and renewal of
membership.
To
meet the requirements of importing countries for certification of
specific disease-free status, such as Spring Viraemia of Carp (SVC),
Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS), Infectious Haemotopoietic
Necrosis (IHN), Salmonella and Vibrio cholera, AVA has also implemented
surveillance programmes on such viruses and bacteria. The Authority
systematically and regularly monitors and screens export premises and
ornamental fish consignments for the pathogens concerned. Fish and
water samples are collected and examined in our in-house laboratory.
The Authority also sends fish samples to overseas fish health
laboratories for cross-referencing.
For certification of certain specific pathogens, members are required to meet the following additional requirements:
a) The premises must have designated
rooms approved by AVA for fish disease treatment, which should be
separated from other areas.
b) As in the case of the quarantine
room, the entrances/exits to the disease treatment room should have
disinfecting foot-baths.
c) All fish should be held within the quarantine room for, at least, 7 days before export.
d) The exporters, as well as farm
supplying fish to the exporters, must maintain good records of fish
stocks and movements into and out of the quarantine room.
e) The farm supplying fish to the
exporters should not use organic manure in their operation and natural
food organisms (especially =Moina=) for feeding the fish.
The surveillance programmes and
additional requirements enable AVA to provide the necessary Specific
Disease-free Status for export consignments with credibility. Exporters
also do their utmost in complying with the Code of Practice and
exercise a high level of self-regulation in disease management and
premises sanitation. AVA is currently monitoring closely the
performance of individual exporters, in particular, their proficiency
in maintaining a credible self-regulatory system of premises and fish
health management. With such a system in place at the exporters'
premises, AVA will move towards an auditing role in maintaining and
promoting high standards of fish health for our ornamental fish
industry.
ISO Certification
AVA
encourages ornamental fish exporters to attain ISO certification, which
is an internationally accepted quality management system in
documentation and customers' feedback are important components. The
implementation of ISO by our exporters will complement the existing
AVA's Accredited Ornamental Fish Exporters' Scheme, as it includes the
control and documentation of business activities, such as purchasing,
processing of orders and customers' feedback systems. ISO certification
will not only help to enhance the image of the company, it will also
ensure the quality standard of the fish exported through a standard
quality management system.
Two Singapore ornamental fish
farms-cum-exporters have already achieved the distinction of being
awarded the ISO 9002 quality management system as well as the ISO 14001
environment management system. These farms-cum-exporters serve as good
models for the industry in ensuring production and trading of
ornamental fish of good and consistent quality.
Conclusion
The
successful implementation of a credible quality assurance programme for
ornamental fish trade depends strongly on the ability of the competent
authority to work closely with the exporters in adopting a uniform
approach towards quality assurance and the safeguarding of fish health
prior to export.
AVA and the Singapore Aquarium Fish
Exporters' Association (SAFEA) have, over the years, worked closely
together and shared the same concern and understanding on the
importance of quality and fish health management practices. Both
parties establish regular dialogue sessions to address all issues
affecting the ornamental fish trade. This has enabled the industry to
respond quickly to new requirements of importing countries without
compromising the high quality standards and fish health status in the
industry. AVA and the Singapore Ornamental Fish Exporters' Association
are ready to face the challenges of the new millennium and are looking
forward to offering ever-better services to customers.
OFI Journal Issue 34: February 2001
