Our most recent tilapia health certificate
Our tilapia are disease free. Really disease free. Not just for diseases that can affect the tilapia themselves, but diseases that can infect entire ponds and most aquatic systems. Fish diseases are a serious concern that is growing all over the US and Canada, affecting the food supply and the availability of tilapia at the grocery store.
We get our tilapia tested because they are delivered to farms who are raising them for human consumption. This level of testing is uncommon, but we want our customers to be 100% certain that putting our tilapia into their systems isn't going to introduce any dangerous viruses, bacteria or parasites.
Most Frequently Asked Questions
Why is your certificate from Arkansas?
A proper health certificate needs to be performed by an accredited testing lab according to Bluebook standards. There are only a few Ph.D.'s qualified as AFS/FHS Fish Health Inspectors in the United States and even fewer accredited Labs. Perhaps a dozen. Our tilapia undergo eleven tests to detect every critical Virus, Bacteria and Parasite. Customers who ask for this type of testing usually only require one or two tests. So by doing all eleven, we are covering everybody. The nearest lab to us that can perform all eleven tests happens to be in Arkansas.
Do I need a tilapia with a health certificate?
Nope. Tilapia health certificates are for very specific customers, such as those engaged in commercial tilapia farming for human consumption. We are providing this certificate to everyone so that you can raise your own tilapia with the same level of confidence.
It seems like nobody else has a tilapia health certificate or this information on their websites. Why?
Tilapia health certificates aren't cheap. Many websites that sell tilapia are more of the backyard grower variety, not actual hatcheries. They simply do not have enough sales or make enough money to afford the thousands of dollars that these inspections cost.
Are tilapia diseases dangerous to humans?
No. Tilapia diseases do not affect warm-blooded humans. Properly cooked fish is safe to eat. That said, tilapia diseases do affect the aquatic food chain and can kill off other fish species. Additionally diseases like tilapia lake virus can be hosted in freshwater mussels and amphipods and passed on to any fish with which they come in contact. Whether this affects humans or not depends on what you intend to catch and eat. For example, if all the Salmon are dead because of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia and you are wanting to eat Salmon, then yes, you've been affected.
All of the tilapia in my system died, how do I know if they were diseased?
If you purchased from any of Lakeway USA's brands, e.g. Lakeway Tilapia, Backyard Tilapia, Mineral Springs Tilapia, Aquaponics Fish, etc., your fish were disease-free and probably died from some other environmental condition. If you had fish in your system previously that died and you did not get them from a Lakeway USA brand, then there is a possibility that your system was already diseased by the previous batch. Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia in particular can survive dried out on plastic metal and glass surfaces for several weeks. It's important to sanitize with bleach or Virkon to fully eradicate it from your system. In aquaponics systems, this means a complete tear down and re-build.