A delegation from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led by Eng. Anwar Bin Abed Al-Azwari, Director of the Aquaculture Production Department, and Dr. Abdullah Nasser A. Aljurayyan, Head of the Biotechnology Sector of the National Livestock & Fisheries Development Program (NLFDP), visited the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).
The delegation met with BIOTEC executives, led by Assoc. Prof. Chaowaree Adthalungrong, Ph.D., BIOTEC Executive Director. The visit included facility tours showcasing BIOTEC’s technologies and scientific instruments.
Potential areas for collaboration were discussed, focusing on, for example, aquaculture and livestock vaccine development, microbiome studies related to aquaculture and livestock diseases, and the prevention of bacterial diseases in aquatic animals using biofilm inhibitors and probiotics.
MEWA, through its National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA), and BIOTEC are already collaborating on a mega-project to study viral accommodation mechanisms and to select white spot syndrome virus-tolerant shrimp stocks, based on BIOTEC and NAQUA breeding program. This project is led by Dr. Kallaya Sritunyalucksana-Dangtip, Research Fellow, and Dr. Suparat Taengchaiyaphum, Researcher, from BIOTEC’s Aquatic Animal Health Research Team.
