New free resources have been released by Agriculture Victoria which will give insights into aquatic animal disease events.
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The resources gives guidelines in the event of a disease outbreak for animals like finfish, molluscs and crustaceans.
An online book titled Outbreak! also explains an investigation and response process after an emergency biosecurity event.
Agriculture Victoria principal veterinary officer Tracey Bradley co-authored the resources and said they would strengthen Victoria's biosecurity capacity.
"In what's believed to be an Australian-first, our book brings together the 10 essential steps for investigating aquatic disease events in the wild or on-farm and includes easy-to-understand case studies," Dr Bradley said.
"Readers will discover how to define a case, collect and analyse data and describe an outbreak over both time and place - information which will help to determine the cause, relevant controls and, ideally, how to prevent future events."
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Dr Bradley was recently recognised with an Australian Government Biosecurity Commendation Certificate for her efforts supporting the farmed abalone industry to manage a viral disease of abalone.
She said the experience helped her develop the resources
"Even with the best biosecurity practices things can move quickly when disease hits, so it's essential to investigate as soon as you notice something is wrong," Dr Bradley said.
Free e-learning courses also recently released by Agriculture show how to submit the best sample possible to help reach a diagnosis.
The resources were also co-authored by Agriculture Victoria senior veterinary officer epidemiology Nicole McLaughlin and were developed with the assistance of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
