Asian shrimp production and the economic costs of disease

Griffiths, D.; Pratoomyot, J.; Vu, N. T.; Jiravanichpaisal, P.; Shinn, A. P.; Briggs, M.; Trong, T. Q.

Asian shrimp production and the economic costs of disease

2018

Using FAO aquaculture production statistics, the global production of cultured crustaceans for 2018 is predicted to be ~8.63 million tonnes. The growth of the shrimp industry, however, is impacted by episodes of disease resulting in huge national income losses (despite compensatory price rises in response to supply shortage), amounting to billions of dollars annually. To illustrate this, the current study reviews losses over the past 40 years and then focuses on current disease problems in Asia, notably AHPND (acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease caused by pathogenic isolates of Vibrio parahaemolyticus), the microsporidian Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP), and WSSV (white-spot syndrome virus). The impacts of AHPND in affected countries, with particular focus on Thailand and the changes in the number of farm operators, land use and production, is investigated. The economic loss from decreased production is followed through the volume of product traded through Mahachai Market, one of Thailand's principal seafood markets, throughout 2010–2017 and is estimated to be US$ 7.38 billion with a further US$ 4.2 billion in export losses. Shrimp disease-related losses within the Vietnamese Mekong Delta were, in the absence of detailed production data, estimated using an assumption-based exercise. Losses due to AHPND in 2015 were determined to be >US$ 26 million, while the costs of WSSV in the same year were >US$ 11 million.

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