Business trip report, Thailand, Sivaramasamy

Recently, I was visiting (a four-month research activity) and conducting research work at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The FID laboratory has extensive expertise in the field of infectious disease diagnosis and control and has a pleasant research environment and colleagues. I was conducting a series of laboratory and field research experiments to investigate emerging and infectious diseases in freshwater fish Nile tilapia, Red tilapia, and Snakeskin gourami to characterize the fact that production was declining. During the experiment period, we found various bacterial pathogens that were currently causing high mortality and economic losses in the local fish farms area such as Flavobacterium sp, Aeromonas sp, and Streptococcus sp.

The disease-affected freshwater fish samples were being collected from fish farms and were being subjected to preservation for bacteriology, PCR, histopathology, and sequencing. Additionally, a laboratory challenge experiment was conducted after the causative agent was confirmed from the affected fish with the CE FID research team at the Department of Microbiology. Furthermore, I was having productive discussions with colleagues regarding alternative strategies for controlling the disease-causing pathogen instead of antibiotics. Throughout the research period, we were continually analyzing the data and discussing our findings to develop more effective solutions. This short visit enabled me to learn new scientific techniques critical to the advancement of current research experiments and enabled me to establish valuable research collaborations.