Status: Completed
Start date: 31 July 2020
Completion date: 30 June 2023
Project code: P01-B-003
Species/Threats: Tilapia
Download project report (PDF, 7.67 MB)
Tilapias aggressively compete with native fish and can dominate local fish communities – likely causing harmful impacts in Australia as populations expand. Selecting new biocontrol options to manage feral tilapia in Australia meant reviewing tilapia diseases, assessing their potential to control tilapia, and analysing the costs and benefits of the most likely agent.
Although 22 pathogens affect tilapia, all of the bacteria, fungi and parasites also affect fish other than tilapia. However, of the nine tilapia-affecting viruses, three are specific to that species – so the project team investigated those further.
The objectives of this project were:
Tilapia Lake Virus has been considered as a potential candidate for biocontrol and has been proposed for further investigation. Another candidate for possible further investigation is the newly emerged tilapia parvovirus (TiPV), this virus has been reported to cause 60-70% mortality rate across six provinces in China, however the species specificity of TiPV has not been reported. All other potential pathogens assessed have been shown to not be species specific to tilapia and are therefore less suitable candidates for biocontrol.
A cost benefit analysis has commenced, this review seeks to identify the current distribution of tilapia in Australia, past and current management/control practices, existing impacts of tilapia on Australian waterways and the likely spread and impact in Australia based on current management systems.
Sunarto A, Grimm J, McColl K, Ariel E, Nair KK, Corbeil S, Hardaker T, Tizard M, Strive T and Homes B (2022) Bioprospecting for biocontrol agents for invasive tilapia in Australia Biological Control 174(105020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2022.105020
