Training Manual on Disease Management of Brackishwater Aquaculture farming

Abstract

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food producing industry with a total global aquaculture production of 112 million tonnes. Shrimp has become the single most successful crop and backbone of the brackishwater coastal aquaculture in India and many Asian countries. Tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon, and Pacific white shrimp Penaeus vannamei are the most important farmed shrimp species across the world. Brackishwater farming in India during the past four decades has evolved from age-old traditional systems of „pokkali‟ in Kerala, „bheries‟ in West Bengal, „gheris‟ in Odisha, „khar lands‟ in Karnataka and „khazans‟ in Goa coasts to modern semi intensive practice. During the decade of 1990's brackishwater aquaculture development received a huge impetus on semi intensive shrimp farming with the demonstration project by The Andhra Pradesh Shrimp Seed Production Supply and Research Centre (TASPARC) funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt. of India. Commercial scale shrimp farming started gaining roots only after 1988–1989 and the semi-intensive farming technology demonstrated production levels reaching 4–6 tons/ha. Giant tiger shrimp became the mainstay of brackishwater aquaculture in India and the area under shrimp farming showed remarkable growth rate till 1995.However since 1995, the sector has been plagued by viral diseases, especially White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV). Although P. monodon was dominating species, since 2001, global shrimp aquaculture dramatically shifted to P. vannamei, because of the availability of disease free stock. From 2000 onwards, there was a gradual increase in production which reached a maximum of 1,40,000 MT in 2006-07. But in 2007-08 and 2008-09, the production levels reduced drastically and reached the pre-1995 level of 75,000 MT. The introduction of P. vannamei in 2009 led to the recovery of the sector, with the total production levels reaching a level of 8,15,000 tonnes from a total area under culture of around 1,08,000 hectares in 2020- 21 (Source: MPEDA) marking sea food export valued more than 5 billion dollars. However, farming activity in the country faces problems due to market price fluctuation and disease outbreaks. Hence health management is the key to success and profitability in aquaculture. The prevalence of the disease in shrimp culture systems is alarming such that there is a need for effective and sustainable control measure of disease outbreak.