An integrated approach to sustainable shrimp farming

An estimated 3.4 million metric tons of farmed shrimp were produced globally in 2008 and crop value was estimated at more than US$14 billion. Despite the economic importance of farmed shrimp, the shrimp farming industry has been slow to adopt biosecurity and genetic improvement strategies which are prevalent in more mature meat-producing industries. However, this trend is changing rapidly. Historically, the giant tiger prawn, Penaeus monodon has been the most common shrimp species cultured in Asia. Now, most Asian shrimp farmers stock their ponds with non-indigenous Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. There are a number of advantages in culturing L. vannamei over P. monodon, including the availability of healthy and domesticated stocks. Commercially available populations of specific pathogen free (SPF) L. vannamei exist in the Americas and Asia and these populations are free of such pathogens as white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) and Taura syndrome virus (TSV). Another significant advantage in culturing L. vannamei is the opportunity to benefit from selective breeding. Commercially available populations of this species have been bred for rapid growth and enhanced TSV resistance over multiple generations. Despite the benefits of culturing healthy and selectively bred L. vannamei, there are significant challenges. For example, the genetic potential of these shrimp cannot be fully realized if they are grown in environments where virulent pathogens exist. Farmers using selectively bred shrimp need to adopt cost-effective, biosecure strategies to mitigate the risk of pathogen introduction into their growout ponds. In addition, care must be taken by shrimp breeders to ensure that founder stocks come from genetically diverse populations in order to mitigate problems associated with inbreeding depression. The sustainability of the global shrimp farming industry will be predicated on the use of genetically diverse and selectively bred populations of SPF shrimp stocked in biosecure environments.