Outbreak of disease, India lost shrimp crop

White spot syndrome (WSSV) and white feces disease (WFD) are seriously reducing the production of white shrimp in India, The Hans India newspaper said. About 30,000 farmers are still expecting the Indian Government to take measures to curb the outbreak of the disease.

According to World's Top Exports in May 2019, India is the world's largest shrimp exporter, with a trade value of US $ 4.4 billion, accounting for 25.4% of the global market, and almost double compared with the country ranked second (Ecuador – 2.9 billion).

The miraculous growth of India stems from the shift to vannamei, a species that is capable of high-density, short-lived, good vitality and effective disease resistance.

Since the 2000s, after the black tiger shrimp epidemic was raging, whiteleg shrimp and, in some cases, giant freshwater shrimp have become popular cultivars and took the leading position in Indian fisheries.

Even so, the overheating growth led to the downside. Many shrimp farmers believe that, because whiteleg shrimp is easy to raise and does not need additional nutrition, the bottoms in many areas are bottled, poor nutrition, algae are not developed, the pond environment is seriously polluted.

Scientists in the city of Nellore, India, said that whiteleg shrimp is suffering a serious loss due to the disease, the people are said to be early monsoon facilitating the pathogen to appear and spread.

Conducting sampling at white shrimp farms, the results showed that all ponds had common pathogens in shrimp such as: white spot disease (WSSV), black-gill disease (BGD), syndrome Loose shells (LSS), white feces (WFS), myopathy (WMD), subcutaneous necrosis and hematopoietic organs (IHHN) …

The panic for Indian farmers grew when the ponds discovered that the pathogens were still biosecurity and fully met the measurement standards recommended by authorities.

Research from the Global Aquaculture Alliance suggests that the Indian Government was subjective and inadequate to prevent early outbreaks, leading to delays in alerting pond standards.

Within 10 years, starting from 2009, when India identified vannamei as the main export item, accounting for 90% of the shrimp industry's total output, the country was always confident in its facilities and progress. The science applies to shrimp farming. However, this time they did not promptly back up to the outbreak of disease.

A farmer in Nellore City said: “Scientists have visited the pond many times and held talks with farmers but no one has found a way to prevent the WSSV outbreak. Is the disease no longer under control? “

This is also a common concern for shrimp farmers in India when it is recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture for one season to reduce WSSV incidence, according to The Hindu.

Inadequate compensation

In late May 2019, many Indian seafood experts warned of WSSV syndrome. However, due to the harvest, the government and its people seem indifferent. As a result, when the disease broke out, India did not have enough budget to prevent the disease from spreading.

The Hans India newspaper revealed that many farmers in the west coast of India were surprised and shocked to receive only 35 to 40% of the compensation for diseased shrimp production.

Earlier, they were told by the authorities that they would receive 300 rupees (about 4.2 USD) for 1kg of shrimp. But now, with just 0.15 USD – equivalent to 34,000 VND for 1 kg of shrimp, Indian farmers said that the compensation was not satisfactory for them to reproduce the next crop.

According to the figures of The Hans India, only about 6,000 hectares out of more than 20,000 hectares of shrimp-contaminated farms were compensated by the government.

Manoj Sharma, a farmer in an infected area and a shrimp consultant, told Undercurrent News: “The intensification of vannamei imported from South America could be the cause of the disease.” . Sharma also added that shrimp production in the region is now returning to a few years ago, when vannamei was not popularized as a “national breed”.

Floods also make the WSSV epidemic difficult to control. Heavy rain in the northwestern state of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh destroyed thousands of large shrimp farms. Many farmers have lost their working capital as well as machines during flash floods.

The Indian Association of Seafood Exporters says India will not reach its target of 1 million tons of shrimp by 2020, and could lose more than 200,000 tons in 2019.

Feed manufacturer Avanti Feeds reviews that the challenge in 2019 will be an opportunity for the Indian shrimp industry to look back on itself. Farmers in this country will be forced to reduce their stocking rates. In the longer term, it will be of benefit to India because of the low global supply, plus the thorough inspection of the output, which will help the price of shrimp and shrimp export industry of the South Asian nation to recover in the second half of the year. 2020.