Industry: need method to stop bacterial & viral diseases Marketplace to industry, governments: Solve shrimp diseases
14 September 2020
Asia’s pond farmed shrimp industry has lost about U.S. $20 billion over the last decade as a result of diseases.
The international seafood marketplace issued a heartfelt plea to the shrimp supply chain last month. Its message: Shrimp disease management control is crucial and without a coordinated plan, new diseases will continue to wreak havoc on the supply chain as they have done for the past couple of decades.
The message was issued in a letter to aquaculture directors in the governments of China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP); it was signed by 19 members of the Asia Farmed Shrimp Supply Chain Round Table, among them Waitrose & Partners, Sainsbury’s, Fishin’ Company, UK Seafood Industry Alliance, Tesco, and SeaFresh Group.
The companies expressed a collective concern about new diseases like DIV1 and HPTV (hepatopancreatic translucence virus) and about the potential movement of diseased post-larvae from hatcheries to grow-out ponds, resulting in the widespread transmission of these and other diseases.
The way to stop new and present shrimp diseases from spreading is to develop an indoor raised shrimp aqua-farm system that kills both bacteria and viruses.