In recent times, the growth of the aquaculture industry in Ghana has been threatened by the outbreak of fish diseases. Fish farms across the country, especially, some farms in the Eastern Region, which leads in fish production, have experienced unusual tilapia mortalities. Efforts to minimize disease impacts include improving farming practices, implementing simple biosecurity measures, attending outbreak investigation and disease diagnosis, vaccinating stock etc. This study was designed to better understand the root causes (or risk factors) that can lead to disease outbreaks by understanding farm management practices among farmers in the Eastern Region of Ghana and identifying the constraints in the adoption of biosecurity measures at the farm level.
A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study using the fish epidemiology and health economics online survey tool (EPI-Tool) was conducted to obtain information from farmers on their farming practices, biosecurity measures and losses due to diseases. A total of 137 farms in the Eastern Region were surveyed. Both parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques, such as the Chi-square tests, univariate and multivariate regression analysis were used in this study. The study found that factors such as district category and treatment of ponds were significantly associated with fish disease (p<0.05). Similarly, district category and feed type contributed to unusual fish mortality (p < 0.05) (Table. 1). Also, the majority of the farmers, 99 (72.3%) lack knowledge about aquaculture biosecurity in the study region. This was attributed to a lack of expertise, implementation difficulties, and lack of funds (Fig. 1). The study recommended training of fish farmers on biosecurity measures and farm practices. Follow-up studies on fish mortality causes and creating collaborative networks for disseminating best practices and disease control are needed.