Dr. Nick Moody, the team leader for Aquatic Diagnostic Capacity, CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong brought new insights from his Australian experiences with shrimp diseases to discussions of transboundary transmission of aquatic animal diseases at a meeting in Ottawa on May 30-31, 2017. The workshop brought together experts from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the United States Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspections Services-Veterinary Services, the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, and academia. The focus of the meeting was developing a harmonised process between government agencies for important trade-related diseases and, specifically, those listed by the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE).

Moody also visited aquatic animal diagnostic laboratories at Atlantic Veterinary College and Fisheries and Oceans, Canada (Moncton and Nanaimo) to discuss innovation in molecular diagnostics, quality assurance systems, sharing of technology and positive control plasmids, and he presented seminars on AAHL’s diagnostic research. Moody’s visit was jointly funded by the Visiting Scientist Program for the CERC in Aquatic Epidemiology and the OIE Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Risk Assessment of Aquatic Animal Diseases, and builds on on-going research collaboration in test validation science between the CERC and AAHL.