Efforts to ID source of tilapia continue
PUBLISHED : 3 Aug 2024 at 07:15
The Department of Fisheries has asked Ghana for the DNA of its blackchin tilapia to verify if the outbreak of the invasive fish species in Thailand originated from the African nation.
The department’s director-general, Bancha Sukkaew, said on Friday that the department had sent a letter requesting DNA or some samples of the blackchin tilapia from Ghana, which was the country that Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) reportedly sought permission to import the fish from for R&D purposes in 2010.
He said the data will be used to compare the DNA of the invasive species found in 17 provinces, including Chanthaburi, Rayong, and Bangkok.
Atthakorn Sirilatthayakorn, deputy minister of agriculture and cooperatives, said the ministry received positive feedback after offering to buy blackchin tilapia for 15 baht/kg, which will be used for making fertilisers. The ministry expects the policy to help eliminate four million kilos of blackchin tilapia from waterways and ponds by mid-next year, he said.
Meanwhile, the House subcommittee on solving the spread of the fish has sought advice from legal experts to file a lawsuit against the private company that is believed responsible for their spread, with damages estimated at 10 billion baht.
A representative of CPF earlier submitted a report to the Higher Education, Science and Innovation Committee, denying being the source of the problem. It explained that the company asked for permission to import 2,000 blackchin tilapia fingerlings from Ghana on Dec 22, 2010, for R&D purposes in its breading centre in Samut Songkhram. Many fish died while being transported, and only 600 allegedly remained. However, all the fish died within three weeks, the company said. It then terminated the project, buried all the fish and sent 50 preserved samples to the Department of Fisheries, the company said.
CPF said it is willing to cooperate with government agencies to help.
“We aim to remove about 2 million kilos of the fish from the system as quickly as possible, while we will also support 200,000 predator fish to help eliminate the blackchin tilapia,” said Prasit Boondoungprasert, chairman of the CPF’s executive board.
“I insist the outbreak was not caused by the CPF.”
He called for a probe into 11 companies that exported 300,000 blackchin tilapia to 17 countries from 2013 to 2016 to determine their origin.
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