WorldFish Bangladesh jointly with Fishtech (BD) Limited on Thursday opened the newest the ‘Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory’ at Khulna.
The Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory,, termed in short the ‘ Fishtech Laboratory’ is a specialized first-time PCR-based mollicular fish laboratory in Khulna, in the southern part of Bangladesh, to leading a breakthrough with far-reaching implications for commercial fish and shrimp industry and aquaculture business.
Funded by the USAID’s Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity, the specialized ‘ Fishtech Laboratory’ is a joint partnership between the international research organization WorldFish Bangladesh and FishTech (BD) Limited the preferred partner to providing entrepreneurs development program for commercial fish farming across Bangladesh.
The Laboratory has been equipped with RT-PCR technology to diagnosis a total of 11 types of harmful viruses and bacterial diseases in fish and shrimp, as well as state-of-art scientific equipment from Europe, America and other countries for testing 18 properties of social and water.
According to the latest Annual Fisheries Statistics 2018-19 survey of Bangladesh, in the last 2016-17 in the entire Khulna district, the total amount of fish production was 6,612 84 metric tons.
At this backdrop, both the institutes took the initiative to set up this Fishtech laboratory to considering all the hatcheries, nurseries and stock pond-fish farmers involved in this profession through perfect research and review on the problems of fish and shrimp farming, where all concerned can take the test service through the minimum price.
Dr. Shenchang Senapin, the lead researcher at the Center for Excellence of Shrimp at Mahidol University in Thailand is the leading consultant for this Laboratory project.
Chairman of Fishtech (BD) Limited Khandaker Farhad Hossain presided over the inaugural function while mong others, Mohammad Ataul Karim Bhuiyan, Managing Director, Fishtech (BD) Ltd., Mohammad Tareq Sarkar (Research and Development), Director were also present on the occasion.
On the occasion, Dr. Mir Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain presented a special research paper on the need for a modern laboratory for the diagnosis of diseases in the management of semi-intensive farming of fish and shrimp.
Funded by USAID and implemented by World Fish Bangladesh since 2018, the five-year Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity, is a reflection of the success of the previous six-year Aquaculture and Nutrition (AIN) project.
