ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a report on the status of depuration of molluscan bivalve shellfish in Australia and the ASEAN countries of South East Asia. Apart from obvious geographical differences between the two areas, depuration in Australia is a well established commercial practice with over three hundred plants in New South Wales. Oyster farmers developed a variety of other more successful techniques including the erection of stone slabs on the foreshores to collect natural spatfall, construction of raised shell beds on which young oysters would be seeded and the collection of oyster spat on sticks cut from local mangrove stands. Oysters are marketed in two basic grades, bottles and plates. Although Tasmania is developing export markets for its oysters the rock oyster has never featured as a major export commodity. In the early stages of certification and approval of depuration plants they were tested with batches of oysters seeded with Escherichia coli.
