USSEC – MENA organized a two-day roundtable meeting on August 28 and 29 at the Novotel Hotel Cairo. 55 participants representing all aquaculture sector stakeholders – fish farmers, feed manufacturers, researchers, and decision makers – attended the meeting.
Issues discussed included farmed fish mortalities during the summer months; control and prevention of fish diseases; and measures for fish farm biosafety. The theme of the meeting was "Recent Health problems in Fish Farms and How Good Nutrition and Good Practices Help to Avoid these Diseases" to assure better sustainability of the sector.
Professor Mona Mehrez, the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation for Animal, Poultry and Fish Wealth, attended this roundtable. After two days of sharing experiences, views, and in-depth discussions among the participants, a set of recommendations were agreed upon and drafted to be shared with all of the participants for feedback within one week, and then finalized and delivered to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture (particularly the Vice Minister for Animal, Poultry and Fisheries Wealth) for endorsement and implementation.