US aquaculture drug working group has new successor
USA: After tackling many challenging issues of national scope and importance since 1990, the Working Group on Aquaculture Drugs, Biologics and Pesticides (former Working Group on Quality Assurance in Aquaculture Production) had its final briefing to the federal coordinating Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JSA) on October 23. At this meeting the recommendation was made and supported without objection that this long-standing Working Group be terminated.
The termination of this working group came as a result of a meeting on February 9, 2008 in Orlando, Florida, which decided to phase-out the Working Group during 2008. The long-term success of projects and work have relied on strong public-private sector communications, interactions and partnerships in identifying issues of importance and planning subsequent collaborative tactics.
The American Fisheries Society-Fish Culture Section recently formed the Working Group on Aquaculture Chemicals with Mark Gaikowski (USGS) serving as chair. This new working group will provide a new organizational ‘structure' for supporting many long-standing projects with anticipated participation by federal agencies, industry leaders and academia.
To reaffirm continued work and regroup under this new structure, an organizational and planning meeting is scheduled for February 16, 2009 in conjunction with the Aquaculture America Conference in Seattle, WA. As many as possible are encouraged to attend this meeting if possible to continue the critical collaboration and public-private sector tactical planning required to address issues of national scope and importance related to drugs, biologics and pesticides.
The former and current chairs of the working group, Gary Stefan, Kevin Greenlees and Gary Jensen, will co-author an article about the rationale, scope, diverse activities and many accomplishments over the 18 year history of the group for publication in peer-review literature in 2009-2010.
