While shrimp aquaculture is now worth between USD 12 billion (EUR 10.7 billion) and USD 15 billion (EUR 13.4 billion) annually, it continues to be heavily undermined by its No. 1 pathogen, white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), delegates heard last week at the 2016 Humber Seafood Summit, organized by the U.K. Seafish Authority and held in Cleethorpes, U.K.
According to Grant Stentiford, principal scientific officer at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), WSSV has cost the industry some USD 20 billion (EUR 17.8 billion) since its emergence and remains its most prevalent challenge at around USD 1 billion (EUR 890.8 million) annually.
Emergent diseases in the sector are frequent, and as such disease is “the major impediment” to expanded, sustainable aquaculture production, he said, adding that this necessitates increased investment in disease management.
At the moment, though, there is too little investment in this area, warned Stentiford.
Also at the conference, Jonathan Shepherd, former director general at IFFO and non-executive director at Omega Protein, confirmed the WSSV outbreak in 1992/93 had cost the industry in Asia around USD 6 billion (EUR 5.3 billion).
Shepherd also added that early mortality syndrome (EMS) had cost producers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta approximately USD 1 billion annually and that new diseases were appearing every year.
However, most of the shrimp industry’s challenges are seen in small-scale, rural aquaculture in developing countries where most of the problems go undiagnosed, untreated and undocumented, he said.
