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USDA's National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) shipped the first and second reports of the Catfish 2003 study this week. Part I: Reference of Fingerling Catfish Health and Production Practices in the United States, 2003, and Part II: Reference of Foodsize Catfish Health and Production Practices in the United States, 2003, contain data collected via 600 respondents to the catfish questionnaire from catfish operations in four States. These four States represent the major catfish-producing States, accounting for 95.5% of all national catfish sales in 2002. The reports were accompanied by five info sheets: Highlights of NAHMS
Catfish 2003: Part I Below is a preview of the information presented in Parts I and II. The reports and info sheets are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cahm/index.htm (see Aquaculture or What's New). As always, we encourage you to send comments and questions and to share this message with others involved in the industry. Questions may be directed to Dr. Bruce Wagner, 970-494-7256. Most catfish operations (95.0 percent) raised foodsize fish. Smaller percentages bred catfish (14.2 percent), operated a hatchery (12.8 percent), and/or raised fry to fingerlings (29.9 percent). Most catfish breeding operations stocked at least 1,000 pounds of broodstock per acre in spawning ponds (65.8 percent of operations, and 86.0 percent of broodstock). The majority of hatcheries (79.3 percent) used chemicals to prevent fungal or bacterial infections in hatching troughs. A lower percentage of foodsize fish producing operations with less than 20 acres (17.7 percent) tested water quality at least once a month than did operations with 20 or more acres. Multibatch harvested fish represented the highest percentage of foodsize fish harvested (88.0 percent). Single-batch harvested fish represented a much smaller percentage (11.7 percent) of the harvest. A CD of the Center for Animal Health Monitoring (CAHM) website is available. It includes most CAHM publications and provides faster access to available reports than downloading from the web. If you are interested in obtaining a copy, please respond to Anne Berry (below). Anne L. Berry |