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 permanently destroy entire ponds and most aquatic systems. Fish diseases are serious stuff folks and a problem that is growing all over the US and Canada, affecting the food supply.

The certificate below is a regulatory certificate. It is good in all 50 states and all foreign countries. If your state asks you to provide a copy of a tilapia health certificate, this is what they are asking for. Even if your state doesn't ask, you should keep a copy of this attached to your receipt for your records. If your tilapia do manage to get into the public waterways by way of flooding, theft, vandalism or any other mishap, being able to prove that your tilapia came from a disease-free source will reduce the risk of you being held financially liable for ecological damages and environmental cleanup.

Most Frequently Asked Questions

Your certificate is from Arkansas, will it be good in my state?

Yes. The certificate above is a regulatory certificate. It must 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. Most states only require couple of tests, so by doing all eleven, we are covering every state and country on Earth.

What happens if I don't have tilapia with a health certificate?

For most people, not having proof that your tilapia came from a disease-free hatchery with a health certificate is like driving without a drivers license. It only matters if you're asked to show your license. If you raise your tilapia quietly on private property, chances are nobody will ever ask. However the penalties for being asked and unable to provide can be severe. For example, some states will charge you to drain your pond and confiscate your fish if disease-free cannot be verified. In Illinois, they can charge you with a crime and subject you to imprisonment. Remember folks, ignorance to the law is not an excuse that can be use in court.

It seems like nobody else has a tilapia health certificate or this information on their websites. Why?

Tilapia health certificates for regulatory purposes 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 every year.

Unfortunately, some fail to pass the battery of tests performed for a regulatory inspection. The testing labs do not give "credit" for failed test results. So, rather than pay again for a do-over, some tilapia dealers choose to ignore health certificates altogether. Places around the Great Lakes and in Florida are especially problematic for regulatory inspections because of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus and toxic organisms stirred up by yearly hurricanes. You can easily identify these retailers by looking for the places where they cannot ship or have been banned

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. If all the Salmon are dead because of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia and you are wanting to eat Salmon, then yes, you've been affected. This is also why some states have stricter rules.

All 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.

The Bottom Line

Inspections by state authorities are rare for commercial producers and virtually non-existent for home-based growers. Yet somehow, it's always the person without the proper certification who gets caught. The good news, by simply downloading and saving a copy of the health certificate above along with your purchase receipt, you'll have your bases covered.