The Fisheries Commission will in the coming weeks begin a mass vaccination of fish farms especially the ones on the Volta Lake.
According to the commission, the mass vaccination will help fight bacterial infections that are killing fishes at the farms.
The move by the Fisheries commission is necessitated by the tilapia deaths recorded last three months at Fujian Fish Farm at Asutuare and also on some fish farms on the Volta Lake.
Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Naa Afoley Quaye has ruled out tilapia lake virus has the cause of the deaths.
She attributed the deaths to lack of oxygen in the lake and suspected bacterial infection.
“It wasn’t the tilapia lake virus, it was suspected to be lack of oxygen because of the opening of the Bagre Dam, water gushed into the Volta Lake and it reduced the oxygen level within the Volta Lake.â€
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“Because of the misuse of antibiotics we suspected bacteria infection on the Volta Lake and we will do a mass vaccination, some farms are already doing vaccination of their fish but we want to do mass vaccination especially on the Volta Lake,†she revealed.
In October last year, there was a scare among fish consumers when news broke that more than six tonnes of dead fish (tilapia) had been discovered on the Fujian Fish Farm, owned by a Chinese firm.
Another incident was noticed at the end of the year along the Volta Lake.
The Fisheries Commission and the Veterinary Services initiated an investigation process to find the cause of the kills.
Ghana currently consumes 950 thousand metric tonnes of fish annually with 60 per cent being imported fish, in 2016 the country imported 135m metric tonnes of fish to curb the reduction in the country's fish stock.