Identifying key stakeholders and developing a roadmap for the risk assessment

Escapes or releases of domesticated aquaculture fish pose a potential risk of adverse effects on native fish gene pools. The FP7 project AquaTrace applies molecular genetic tools, which will improve the ability for tracing farmed fish in the wild and for documentation of their potential effects on wild conspecifics. Based on the scientific insights the project provides a risk assessment and management recommendations concerning the genetic impact of aquaculture fish on wild fish gene pools. In the frame of the AquaTrace project, this document aims to identify the key stakeholders and to draw a roadmap for the risk assessment in line with the relevant work package.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Feasibility Study on a Decentralised System Architecture for Animal Transport Tracing Systems (DEAR-TRACE)

The objective of the study was to demonstrate whether the data recorded by the tracing systems of long journey animal transport vehicles for the official controls under Regulation 1/2005 and managed by different private service providers for trucks fitted with their systems could be made remotely available to competent authorities in this decentralised system architecture. The concept was tested for around 2 months with 2 tracing systems from different service providers, with volunteering transport companies using these systems and with the participation of competent authorities in 3 Member States with a substantial share in the international animal transport. Overall the experiment proved that with limited software development resources the integration of commercial tracing systems in animal transports would be feasible and offer several advantages to the competent authorities both in respect of animal welfare and traceability of animal movement.JRC.DG.G.4-Maritime affair

On-Farm Mortality in Cattle

The present study was aimed at exploring if and on what extent on-farm mortality, which is regularly notified in national cattle databases in the EU, could be used to design an early warning system for emerging diseases in cattle. The statistical analysis of mortality rates recorded in Italy in 2008 showed a clear influence by transport, age, sex and season. Through spatial and spatio-clustering methods several geographic area with exceptionally high mortality rates were detected. A more in-dept analysis of individual causes of mortality in the Provinces of Trento and Bolzano showed that on-farm mortality was greatly influenced by management practices and economic conditions. In order to control some of the influencing management factors a model was created to compare for a given population the actual and expected mortality rates. A conclusion of the study was that on-farm mortality regularly notified in national livestock databases could represent an important indicator for evaluating herd management practices. Further analysis and refinement of the applied models would be needed in order to establish a robust method for the detection of anomalous events with respect to the outbreak of animal diseasesJRC.DG.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Technical Specifications for Navigation Systems in Long Journeys Animal Transports

This document defines the technical specifications for navigation systems as referred to in Article 6(9) of Regulation (EC) 1/2005 to the aim - To provide users, developers and manufacturers of navigation and communication systems a description of necessary components and to which requirements such systems shall conform; - To ensure that devices of different manufacturers are compatible and interoperable; - To allow users, such as transport companies and competent authorities to plan for the integration of such systems in the daily routines.JRC.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Enhancing fish species identification using novel markers and emerging technologies

Establishing an efficient traceability framework for fish products is crucial for consumer protection and fisheries management and conservation. This is well reflected in the EU legislation. The EU general food law emphasizes strongly that European citizens must have access to safe and wholesome food of the highest standard. Consumer protection is supported by a stringent traceability concept as stipulated in Regulation (EC) 178/2002. This notion is also expressed in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) basic regulation (EU) 1380/2013, according to which fishing and aquaculture must be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable while providing a source of healthy food for all EU citizens. Under the CFP the need for traceability is not exclusively raised in the context of consumer protection, but also as a necessary component for fisheries control and enforcement in Regulation (EU) 1224/2009 and in the context of the EU’s ambitious strategy to fight Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing under the remit of Regulation (EC) 1005/2008. Recent scientific advances, particularly in the fields of genetics and genomics, have led to the development of novel and improved technologies, and efforts are under way to harness their potential for the species identification of unknown fish samples or products. This report reviews these efforts, describing the technologies and the early results obtained for fish product traceability. Each of these technologies have the potential to fill some specific existing gaps, although they come with their own individual set of disadvantages. Understanding those and monitoring progress is thus crucial for their proper integration in existing traceability frameworks.JRC.F.7-Knowledge for Health and Consumer Safet

Review of the genetic and genomic information regarding the potential genetic interaction and impacts of aquaculture on native fish stocks. Preparatory work for the risk assessment in the frame of the FP7 project AquaTrace.

The present report aims to review knowledge and resources from previous research relevant for the assessment of risks emerging from aquaculture, in particular with a view on the three commercially important target species gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) in the context of the FP7 project AquaTrace. The limited information on escapees and of genetic and genomic knowledge in the target species result in specific challenges for a risk assessment which are addressed here. In particular the development of management goals and assessment endpoints, indispensable to any robust risk assessment are discussed.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Mapping the research on aquaculture. A bibliometric analysis of aquaculture literature

Research on aquaculture is expanding along with the exceptional growth of the sector and has an important role in supporting even further the future developments of this relatively young food production industry. In this paper we examine the aquaculture literature using bibliometrics and computational semantics methods (latent semantic analysis, topic model and co-citation analysis) to identify the main themes and trends in research. We analyse bibliographic information and abstracts of 14,308 scientific articles on aquaculture recorded in Scopus. Both the latent semantic analysis and the topic model indicate that the broad themes of research on aquaculture are related to genetics and reproduction, growth and physiology, farming systems and environment, nutrition, water quality, and health. The topic model gives an estimate of the relevance of these research themes by single articles, authors, research institutions, species and time. With the co-citation analysis it is possible to identify more specific research fronts, which are attracting high number of co-citations by the scientific community. The largest research fronts are related to probiotics, benthic sediments, genomics, integrated aquaculture and water treatment. In terms of temporal evolution, some research fronts such as probiotics, genomics, sea-lice, and environmental impacts from cage aquaculture are still expanding while other such as mangroves and shrimp farming, benthic sediments are gradually loosing in weight. While bibliometric methods do not necessarily provide a measure of output or impact of research activities, they are useful tools for mapping a research area, identifying the relevance of themes in the scientific literature and understanding how research fronts evolve and interact. This information may be valuable for research institutions and policy makers for targeting research efforts, establishing collaborations and positioning in the research area.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

European Aquaculture Performance Indicators - Indicators for Sustainable Aquaculture in the European Union

This report presents the outcome of the JRC research on the development of quantitative indicators to measure the performance of the EU aquaculture (European Aquaculture Performance Indicators (EAPI)). Besides describing the current situation on the basis of the most recent data, the chosen performance indicators could assist national authorities in the preparation of the aquaculture strategic plans and measuring the progress in their implementation.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Interactions between Aquaculture and Fisheries

Aquaculture is increasingly interacting with fisheries from a socio-economic and resource use perspective at the level of the global food market and through its dependence from fishmeal and fish oil. The relevance of the interactions between the two sectors is becoming more evident as the process of transition from fishing to farming has reached a pivotal point, with almost 50% of the fish food supply now coming from aquaculture. Cases of horizontal integration are becoming more common both at company and industrial district level. The analyses on aquaculture and fisheries interactions often result in diverging views. In this paper we review the main positions in the recent scientific literature, structuring the discussion along the following themes: food market interactions; comparison of resources use using Life Cycle Assessment; use of fishmeal and fish oil and feed markets; impacts on fish stocks; food security; technical substitution with alternative ingredients in feed formulations. The review is not aimed at taking a definitive position in respect of these complex issues but rather at summarising the different scientific contributions and indicating possible areas for further research. Research on fisheries and aquaculture interactions is considered beneficial in terms of policy support especially now that the reform of European Common Fishery Policy is assigning greater relevance to the growth of aquaculture and its contributions in terms of socio-economic development in coastal and rural communities. In a more global perspective, the understanding of interactions between aquaculture and fisheries is important to evaluate the respective contributions to food security goals and the implications in terms of sustainability and resource use efficiency.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair

Transport temperatures observed during the commercial transportation of animals

Current temperature standards and those proposed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) were compared with the actual practices of commercial transport in the European Union. Temperature and humidity records recorded for a year on 21 vehicles over 905 journeys were analysed. Differences in temperature and humidity recorded by sensors at four different positions in the vehicles exceeded 10°C between the highest and lowest temperatures in nearly 7% of cases. The number and position of temperature sensors are important to ensure the correct representation of temperature conditions in the different parts of a vehicle. For all journeys and all animal categories, a relatively high percentage of beyond threshold temperatures can be observed in relation to the temperature limits of 30°C and 5°C. Most recorded temperature values lie within the accepted tolerance of ±5°C stipulated in European Community Regulation (EC) 1/2005. The temperature thresholds proposed by EFSA would result in a higher percentage of non-compliant conditions which are more pronounced at the lower threshold, compared to the thresholds laid down in Regulation (EC) 1/2005. With respect to the different animal categories, the non-compliant temperature occurrences were more frequent in pigs and sheep, in particular with regard to the thresholds proposed by EFSA