CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MOVEMENT OF FISH AND SHRIMP IN THE STATE OF PERNAMBUCO IN THE PERIOD FROM 2017 TO 2022
transit of aquatic animals, healthy aquaculture, animal movement.
Aquaculture is one of the areas of Brazilian agriculture with high potential for animal protein production. This sector has been responsible for the continuous growth of the supply of fish for human consumption, but national production is far below its potential. The factors that limit the development of national aquaculture are technological, environmental, lack of organization on the part of producers, high tax burden and, among others, lack of knowledge about the health status of crops. Great challenges for national livestock were seen in 2021, but fish farming had increments, which affirms the great potential of national aquaculture. In 2021, there was a national production of around 559 thousand tons of fish and 78,6 million kilograms of cultivated shrimp. As federal legislation determines the issuance of an Animal Transit Guide (ATG) for the transit of production animals and that every establishment that cultivates or keeps aquatic animals in the state must be registered with the Agricultural Defense and Inspection Agency of the State of Pernambuco (Adagro), studies on the subject are of immeasurable importance. Although studies regarding the movement of aquatic animals are still scarce, the characteristics of animal movement can help identify current or future risk groups for disease transmission, helping the Epidemiological Surveillance activities of the Official Veterinary Service. Only two surveys that addressed aspects of this research were verified: one in the state of Maranhão and another in Goiás. The objective was to characterize the movement of fish and shrimp in the state of Pernambuco between 2017 and 2022. Data on the emission of ATGs from aquatic animals (n=16,150) were generated in the Agricultural Integration System (Siapec), resulting in a total of 15,012 AGTs for fish and 1,138 AGTs for shrimp. The movement of fish was mainly interstate (n=13,195, 87.9%) and for the purposes of slaughter (n=8,231, 54.8%) and ornamentation/aquarium (n=4,125, 27.5%), and in the transit of shrimp intrastate movement prevailed (n=1,098, 96.5%) and the purpose of slaughter (n=1,098, 96.5%). The characterization carried out allows identifying the dynamics of the movement of fish and shrimp from Pernambuco, in addition to helping in the elaboration of sanitary strategies for more effective action in the prevention and control of diseases, avoiding their spread.