Within the series of meetings and workshops on the importance of biosecurity in the aquaculture sector and the measures and latest developments related to the sector, the Saudi Aquaculture Society in joint cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture held the 5^th Biosecurity Workshop at Al Salam Holiday Inn in Jeddah, during the period 2 - 3 December, 2014.

This workshop comes in continuation of the efforts exerted to formulate clear policies concerning the application of biosecurity measures in projects operating in this sector and the exchange of expertise, as well as increasing the level of participation and exchange of information among the aquaculture projects.

The first day of the workshop was devoted to reviewing the status of bio-security in the shrimp farming projects in the Kingdom, besides the latest developments relating to production and the state of diseases in general.

This workshop comes at the end of the first production cycle since the adoption of P. vannamei farming in the Kingdom. The results presented by the companies showed encouraging results that contributed to re-instating the sector to its former status before the infection of the white spot virus which hit the shrimp production projects in the past few years.

The second day has been assigned to reviewing the status of bio-security in fish farming projects, especially those projects which use floating cages culture systems. The meeting also reviewed the experience of one of the farms that produce caviar in closed culture systems.

On the sidelines of the workshop, a meeting was held between the aquaculture project managers and representatives of the bio-security unit at the Ministry of Agriculture.