Fish Health Section

CHAIRPERSON

Dr CV Mohan is the present Research and Development Program Manager of NACA. He received his PhD from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK in 1990 in the area of aquatic animal pathology. Since 1982, he has been involved with aquatic animal health and aquaculture teaching and research at the College of Fisheries, Mangalore, India. In December 2000, he became Professor of Fish Pathology at the same institute. In March 2003, Dr Mohan was appointed as the Coordinator of Aquatic Animal Health Program of NACA and has been instrumental in managing the regional
aquatic animal health program in 21 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. As R&D Manager of NACA since Feb 2009, he manages the regional R&D program. His expertise includes aquatic animal health management, fish and shrimp pathology, epidemiology, surveillance and risk management, responsible and sustainable small-scale aquaculture, development and implementation of better management practices, farmer group formation and aquaculture certification. He has over 28 years of teaching, research and development experience and has authored and co-authored over 100 papers.

VICE-CHAIRPERSON

Dr Le Van Khoa obtained a B.Sc in Aquaculture in 1997 from Hanoi Agriculture University and Nha Trang University of Fisheries, and Ph.D in Veterinary Medicine from Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005. He was Research Scientist, Department of Aquatic Animal Health Reseach, Research Institute for Aquaculture No.1 from 1997-2006, and Head, Department of Fish Disease Laboratory, Research Institute for Aquaculture No.1 from 2007-2008. Currently, he is OIE/NACA National Focal Point for Aquatic Animal Diseases and Head, Division of Aquatic Animal Health Management, Department of Animal Health in Hanoi. His research areas are in fungal diseases of shrimp, bacterial and parasitic diseases of red-drum and his experience include BMP/ GAP/biosecurity systems, development of national aquatic animal health management, sustainable aquaculture, and teaching/ postgraduate supervision at Hanoi University of Agriculture and Vinh University from 2006.

SECRETARY/TREASURER

Dr. Puttharat Baoprasertkul is currently Fisheries biologist and Head of PCR Laboratory at Inland Aquatic Animal Health Research Institute (IAAHRI), Department of Fisheries (DoF), Thailand. She obtained her PhD from Auburn University, USA in 2006. She started her career as Fisheries biologist at National Aquaculture Genetic Research Institute (NAGRI) in 1992, and then moved to IAAHRI in 2007. Her research has mainly been on molecular genetics, expressions of immune related genes and aquatic animal diseases. She has published more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She was recently invited to be a consultant on diagnostic technique for ???Regional Training for Capacity Building in Laboratory Diagnosis and Surveillance Program for IMNV in ASEAN Member Countries??? in Indonesia, funded by FAO.

PAST CHAIRPERSON

Dr. Puttharat Baoprasertkul is currently Fisheries biologist and Head of PCR Laboratory at Inland Aquatic Animal Health Research Institute (IAAHRI), Department of Fisheries (DoF), Thailand. She obtained her PhD from Auburn University, USA in 2006. She started her career as Fisheries biologist at National Aquaculture Genetic Research Institute (NAGRI) in 1992, and then moved to IAAHRI in 2007. Her research has mainly been on molecular genetics, expressions of immune related genes and aquatic animal diseases. She has published more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She was recently invited to be a consultant on diagnostic technique for ???Regional Training for Capacity Building in Laboratory Diagnosis and Surveillance Program for IMNV in ASEAN Member Countries??? in Indonesia, funded by FAO.

MEMBERS

Prof. Ikuo Hirono obtained his PhD from Kagoshima University in 1993, did a postdoctoral fellowship (JSPS) at Tokyo University of Fisheries in 1993-1994 and was a research scholar at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University in 1998. He was Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Genetics and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Fisheries Science, Tokyo University of Fisheries from 1994-2002, and Associate Professor, Tokyo University of Fisheries, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology from 2002-2009. He is Professor, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology from 2009. He is co-editor in chief of Fish and Shellfish Immunology and an editorial board member for Developmental and Comparative Immunology. His main research area is WSSV homologues in the shrimp genome, shrimp immune system and development of DNA vaccines.

Dr. Jie Huang obtained his BSc on virology from Wuhan University in 1987, his MSc from the Wuhan Virology Institute, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) in 1990, and did his PhD on marine biology at the Ocean Institute, CAS in 2004. He is the Head of the Maricultural Disease Control and Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, and OIE expert for White spot disease (WSD) and Infectious and haematopoietic necrosis (IHHN). The laboratory was designated as the Regional
OIE Reference Laboratories for WSD and IHHN in 2011. He has been conducting research projects on the diagnostics, epidemiology, molecular mechanism of virus infection, and control technology for WSD and other aquatic animal diseases for more than 20 years. In recent years, his laboratory has established a series of detection techniques, including gene probe, PCR, LAMP and gene chips, for different aquatic animal pathogens and national standards for shrimp diseases diagnosis. His group has also developed rapid detection kits for a dozen aquatic animal pathogens, nonspecific immune-enhancements and disease resistant bacteria for shrimp disease prevention, and marine fish vaccines for Vibrio spp. and Edwardsiella tarda.

Dr P.K. Sahoo is currently working as ICAR National Fellow-cum-Senior Scientist in Fish Pathology at the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, India. He has more than 18 years of research experience in freshwater fish disease diagnosis and health management. His research mostly focuses on development of molecular diagnostics and production of newer molecules/ prophylactics for disease prevention in freshwater aquaculture. He has been associated with several national and international projects. He has guided several masters and Ph. D students, and is having more than 60 international publications to his credit. He is co-editor of two books on fish immunology and fish health management. His contributions to argulosis survey in Indian aquaculture, exploration of innate immune system of Indian carps, catfish and freshwater prawn is noteworthy.

Dr. Drashanee Ruwandeepika obtained the degree of Bachelor in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in January 2002 and a Master of Science degree in Aquaculture at the Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center (ARC), Ghent University, Belgium in 2005. In December 2010 she finished the PhD in Applied Biological Sciences, from Ghent University, Belgium. Her research was on in vivo and in vitro virulence gene expression of Vibrio harveyi. She is the author/coauthor of research articles in international peer-reviewed journals and several text books. She has been working as an academic member in the Department of Livestock Production, Faculty of Agricultural sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka.

Dr. Susan Gibson-Kueh is a fish pathologist with a BVSc from the University of Sydney (1990), an MSc in Aquatic Veterinary Studies from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling (2001) and is currently completing her PhD on ???Diseases of Lates calcarifer??? at Murdoch University, Australia. She was with the Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory, AgriFood & Veterinary Authority of Singapore from 1995 to 2007 and has many years of working experience with the Asian aquaculture industry in the area of disease diagnosis, management and control. She currently teaches aquatic animal health at the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University and is Director, TwoFish 5000 which specialises in professional consultations and training in aquatic animal health. She has published in international journals and conducted several training workshops in the area of fish pathology.

Dr. Leigh Owens (Australia)

leigh.owens@jcu.edu.au

Dr. Edgar Amar (Philippines)

eamar@aqd.seafdec.org.ph

OBSERVERS

Dr P.K.Pradhan is a Senior Scientist (Fish Pathology) at the Fish Health Management Division of National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), Lucknow, India. He was Assistant Professor at the college of Fisheries, Central Agricultural University, Agartala , Tripura, India from 2002-2008. His research interest includes understanding molecular mechanism of pathogenicity of Aphanomyces invadans infection in fishes and developing strategies to reduce losses due to epizootic ulcerative syndrome in freshwater fish farms.

Dr Rajeev Kumar Jha did his Masters on developing a latex agglutination kit for Aeromonas, PhD on recombinant vaccines against WSSV and was Post-Doctorate Fellow at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His work included an impact study on farming systems in NGO project villages, monoculture shrimp and polyculture shrimp/tilapia or shrimp/milkfish ponds. His project on ???Integrated Management through Fish, Duck and Pig culture in Rice Farming Systems??? funded by World Bank was awarded best NATP project in India. Rajeev currently heads the Farm Shrimp Health Division of Central ProteinaPrima (CPP) Farm operations, and oversees disease diagnostics at farm and hatchery stations. His research covers shrimp/ fish pathogens and remedial measures such as vaccine and probiotics. He has 12 oral presentation and more than 22 research articles in peer reviewed journals. He was awarded for his work on developing 25 indigenous techniques patented by Indigenous Technology Knowledge (ITK), ICAR, India.

Dr. Elena S. Catap (Philippines)

escatap@gmail.com

Ms Wanida Tamat (Brunei)

Wanidawati.tamat@fisheries.gov.bn

Dr. Chumporn Soowannayan (Thailand)

csoowannayan@gmail.com