Australian Prawn Farms
Located in regional Queensland, Australian Prawn Farms is committed to their role as an industry leader in biosecurity. They are a premier tiger prawn hatchery, grow-out farm and processing facility.
Despite their small workforce, the farm has generously supported the Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA) where president Matt West and Tony Charles (chair of APFA Research Committee) have been active committee members for over 10 years. Matt and Tony have implemented best practice biosecurity measures at Australian Prawn Farms and work tirelessly to promote the importance of biosecurity in the Australian prawn farming industry.
At Australian Prawn Farms, they ensure all inputs, including feed, water and stock are rigorously screened for prawn pathogens. They implemented a pathogen screening protocol that exceeds minimum requirements to screen broodstock, post-larvae, and pond-reared stock. All broodstock are quarantined and individually screened for pathogens prior to entry into the hatchery system. Every tank of post larvae is screened and assessed prior to transferring to the grow out section of the farm, and every pond is screened at 100 and 125 days of culture for the presence of 7 pathogens endemic to Australia.
Australian Prawn Farms employs best-practice production techniques that prioritise biosecurity. This includes funding research into the use of eDNA to detect and quantify pathogen presence in ponds and seasonal fluctuations in pathogens. On farm, they reduce risk of disease spread and ensure a healthy, thriving prawn population by maintaining optimal water quality and closely monitoring prawn health. Australian Prawn Farms applies strict exit-level biosecurity, ensuring only pathogen screened post-larvae or cooked products leave the premises.
Australian Prawn Farms demonstrates a strong commitment to training and providing career pathways to the next generation of prawn farmers. This includes hosting veterinary science students from James Cook University to support future veterinary specialist training in aquatic practice.
They have been one of the major initiators of increased communications within the prawn farming industry on the presence and impact of endemic pathogens.
Australian Prawn Farms is a model of biosecurity excellence within the prawn farming industry. Their comprehensive and proactive approach to biosecurity safeguards their operations and sets a benchmark for the entire sector. By integrating biosecurity into daily activities and maintaining rigorous standards across all areas of farm management, this organisation exemplifies best-practice preventative measures, ensuring the health and sustainability of prawn farming in Australia.
Australian Prawn Farms was nominated by Kelly Condon from James Cook University.
Watch a video about their work
Introduction
This is the accessible text transcript of a 2024 Australian Biosecurity Awards winner video featuring Matt West.
Transcript
Well, hello, I'm Matt West, General Manager of Australian Prawn Farms, and it gives me the absolute privilege, to be the recipient this year of the 2024 Australian Biosecurity Awards. For a producer, I'd very much like to take this opportunity to thank Kelly Condon and the team at James Cook University up in Townsville.
They nominated us for this award. And so I actually believe this award is to be a joint award between, the team at JCU and the team at Australian Prawn Farms. The relationship that we've built over the last few years, in particular to biosecurity, is a really, really strong one and one that will continue for many years to come.
Farming prawns is a really rewarding industry, but like a lot of industries, it's got its challenges and biosecurity is one of them. We've had some really, you know, devastating effects on our industry due to biosecurity over the last few years. And so we at Australian Prawn Farms, we're going to put a lot to just trying to maybe answer some of the unknowns.
We've got some really good policies and some plans in place. And I'm pretty proud to say that my team here at Australian Prawn Farms, you know, they understand the, and acknowledge, the importance of biosecurity. And so they're all, hellbent, I guess, on implementing pretty strong biosecurity measures. We kind of believe that just because you can't see it doesn't mean you can't control it.
So we'll continue to spend, you know, money in R&D, and you know building more and more tools for our industry with regards to biosecurity, just so that, you know, everyone out there can continue to enjoy the beautiful prawns that the Australian industry can produce. Thank you.
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