Water treatment to control influent water biosecurity risk on Australian prawn farms. Effectiveness and impacts on production ponds.

In response to the occurrence of white spot disease (WSD), an exotic viral disease that has heavily impacted South-East Queensland prawn farms, the prawn farming industry is developing a set of biosecurity guidelines for farms aimed at reducing the risk of future disease outbreaks. A key component of the new biosecurity measures is the treatment of influent water derived from local natural waters that is used to initially fill production ponds and subsequently to exchange water during the grow-out cycle. This investment will investigate selected water treatment options that prawn farms could implement to control the risk of disease agent transfer onto farms from influent water. It seeks to provide technical detail for the effectiveness of water filtration and ozonation options to control the risk of disease incursions and identify the impacts of these water pre-treatment options on production pond microbiological dynamics and productivity.