The Us Fish & Wildlife Service'S "Aquatic Animal Health Policy": Innovative Approaches To Managing Diseases In Traditional And Special-Case Aquatic Animals

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently revised its internal "Fish Health Policy" chapters in the Service's Manual. The chapters are now referred to as the "Aquatic Animal Health Policy" (AAHP), as the Service now holds and rears a greater number of species within the National Fish Hatchery System, including non-finfish. Potentially accompanying this increased diversity of species may be new aquatic animal pathogens of which little are known. Additionally, many of these new pathogens have yet to be discovered.The new AAHP has been extensively reviewed within the Service, and by agencies and organizations outside of the Service. The AAHP was developed to (a) be more readily adaptable to current needs and (b) address animal health risk-assessment needs relative to "new" and little-understood species under care of the Service.In addition, the AAHP contains a new chapter dedicated to newly developed animal health risk-assessment tools designed specifically to assist resource managers in minimizing the health risks associated with the movement of special-case aquatic species (e. g., threatened and endangered species) onto and off of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facilities. To make the best decisions possible relative to the U.S. aquatic resources, resource managers must first be equipped with information soundly based on facts and high-confidence-level scientific opinions. These new tools allow aquatic animal health professionals to (a) proactively inform resource managers of the level of risk associated with imminent aquatic animal movements, especially those of special-case animals and (b) recommend means to mitigate or remove risks associated with such animal movements.