Non-infectious diseases and syndromes in Indian shrimp farming

Abstract

Aquaculture is the fastest food-producing sector and has attained an all-time high production of 114.5 million tonnes globally (FAO 2020). Shrimp aquaculture is also a potential vibrant sector producing high-quality food and economic income and provides livelihood to millions of people. The global shrimp aquaculture is dominated by two species, namely Penaeus monodon (black tiger shrimp), P. vannamei (Pacific white shrimp). In India, shrimp culture practices were started in a traditional fashion, mainly in the natural water bodies such as bheries in West Bengal and Pokkali fields in Kerala. Later in the mid-90s, the commercial phase of shrimp culture and intensive practices were flourished in India. In the earlier stages, Indian shrimp culture is wholly dominated by black tiger shrimp, P. monodon. As a result, India's black tiger shrimp culture attained the maximum production of 1.44 lakh tones in 2006-07 (www.mpeda.com). Due to disease epizootics and other social issues, the culture of P. monodon became unsuccessful. After that, an exotic species, the Pacific white shrimp P. vannamei, was introduced into the Indian shrimp industry. The exotic species, P. vannamei, with SPF status, fast growth rate, feasibility for a wide salinity range, was readily accepted by Indian shrimp farmers. Consequently, the P. vannamei became the single dominant species of shrimp culture. Diseases are the major constraint in the development and sustainability of the shrimp industry. The commercial form of the shrimp industry with more intensification has aggravated the disease epizootics. Severe economic losses and mass mortality due to monodon baculovirus (MBV) in Taiwan, infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) in the Americas, yellow head virus (YHV) in Thailand, and Taura syndrome virus (TSV) in the Americas in the different period has been reported. White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) continues to be the single most devastating virus that resulted in a severe disease outbreak. In recent times Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) and Hepatopancreatic microsporidiosis (HPM) emerged as a severe concern in the global shrimp industry. In addition to that, a number of non-infectious diseases and syndromes with unknown etiology are constantly causing mortality or reduced growth, thereby resulting in severe economic losses to shrimp farmers. This chapter mainly discussed the non-infectious diseases due to nutritional deficiency, environmental stress, and algal toxicity and syndromes of unknown etiology such as white feces syndrome (WFS) and running mortality syndrome (RMS) associated with shrimp culture.