The SADC Aquatic Animal Health Strategy (2016 -2026) was approved and launched by the SADC Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, and Fisheries and Aquaculture in November 2016. In support of implementing the SADC Protocol on Fisheries, Botswana launched its National Aquaculture Strategy in March 2021 to spearhead the development of aquaculture in Botswana. One of the pillars supporting aquaculture production is biosecurity and aquatic animal health. Through SNRL support, Botswana has developed this draft National Aquatic Animal Health Strategy in alignment with the SADC Regional AAH Strategy and launched it in November 2024. The purpose of the national AAH strategy is to strengthen national capacity in aquatic animal health and biosecurity, and it hopes to achieve this through ten (10) strategic objectives and many activities supporting each objective. The strategy is underpinned by five (5) guiding principles: Science-based research and innovation, Risk analysis, Human capacity and indigenous knowledge, Effective communication and Networking. Against a background of low aquaculture production, poor legal framework and lack of human capacity in AAH, it is projected that aquaculture has the potential to become one of the significant contributors to the GDP of Botswana.
One of the major threats to aquaculture development in Africa is biosecurity, i.e. ensuring proper disease control and management. Millions of wild fish succumbed to epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) in the Chobe-Zambezi system in 2006 and this infection spread throughout southern Africa river systems over the past decade, prompting the development of the SADC Regional Aquatic Animal Health Strategy in 2016. Despite the low uptake of aquaculture as an enterprise, it is encouraging that the Batswana people are now appreciating the need for agricultural diversification to ensure food security and poverty eradication. However, a number of constraints still need to be addressed, the most urgent ones being limited diagnostic capacity, inadequate legislation and lack of human capacity, lack of collaboration, law enforcement limitations and lack of biosecurity/risk analysis training, lack of proper aquaculture/quarantine facilities and aquatic veterinarians, as well as the lack of financial and human resources.
The strategy is benchmarked on the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (WOAH) Aquatic Animal Health Strategy (2021-2025), the African Union – Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) regional capacity and collaboration in animal health and the SADC Regional Aquatic Animal Health Strategy. The purpose of this action is to strengthen national capacity in aquatic animal health and biosecurity in alignment with the regional strategy. It reflects the collective inputs from a wide range of stakeholders through broad-based consultations, as well as desk reviews of existing publications, literature and legal documents. Many of the gaps identified during the consultations informed the structuring of the objectives and activities addressed therein. The strategy also comes with an appended list of fish pathogens and parasites recorded in Botswana, as well as a costed implementation plan. Its immediate implementation gives credence to “a stitch in time saving nine”.