Obsessed with shrimp fingerlings carrying pathogens

In Soc Trang, shrimp farmers have been facing double risks from the beginning of the year until now. The shrimp export market slowed down, causing commercial shrimp in the price range to drop deeply, affecting farmers, so many places did not rush into the stocking season.

In addition, there is the fear of experiencing extreme weather, prolonged heavy rains, and easy disease outbreaks. But the most haunting rhyme is buying the wrong shrimp fingerlings of poor quality or carrying disease. Because after only a short time of stocking, shrimp disease causes significant damage to farmers.

In the brackish water shrimp farming area of Soc Trang province, monitoring the disease situation from the beginning of the farming season to June 8, 2023, the Provincial Department of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine confirmed the damaged area on farmed shrimp is more than 600ha, accounting for nearly 600 hectares with 2.8% of the stocking area, of which tiger shrimp with 52ha, and white shrimp with 552ha.

The cause of damage is more than 242ha, specifically white spot disease 135ha, microspores 1.6ha, acute hepatopancreatic necrosis 88ha, white feces disease 18ha, and the environment more than 362ha.

Damage was most concentrated in Vinh Chau town, with 269ha; My Xuyen district, 204ha; Tran De district, 76ha; and Cu Lao Dung district, 51ha...

Overall assessment in the first 6 months of the year, the brackish water shrimp farming area was slow, and the damaged shrimp area increased by 68ha compared to the same period in 2022. The leading cause of damage to farmed shrimp was white spot disease and acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease. The area of damage caused by white spot disease tends to increase compared to the same period in 2022. The monitoring results for microsporidiosis in damaged ponds and shrimp fingerling showed a high positive rate (18.64% of the monitoring samples).

To be proactive in disease prevention and control and to promptly respond to farmed shrimp at the beginning of the year, the Soc Trang Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine has implemented active and passive disease surveillance programs in supply channels and farming areas. Checking shrimp fingerling imported into the province to identify pathogens to warn shrimp farmers involved in production promptly.

Shortly, local veterinary officials recommend that it is necessary to strengthen preventive measures for the above diseases to limit the damaged shrimp farming area.

A difficult question for shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta at this time, especially since many small shrimp farmers order shrimp fingerlings from shrimp fingerling production units in Binh Thuan province. Farmers trust the quarantine certificate of specialized agencies. Some large shrimp farms in Soc Trang and Bac Lieu provinces choose large branded companies to guarantee the quality of shrimp fingerlings.

However, why is the condition of shrimp reared after some time infected with slow growth? For small shrimp farmers, the damage is self-inflicted because it is difficult to blame anyone. While a few shrimp farms applying high technology also admitted to having similar shrimp diseases, they have been unable to overcome them.

An owner of a large-scale shrimp farm applying high technology in Duyen Hai district, Tra Vinh province, shared that he had succeeded in many previous farming crops thanks to the strict control process of the stages of shrimp farming. Still, the farming season could have been more successful. Recently, shrimp farmers have been disturbed by potential pathogen fingerlings in recent crops. 

Shipping shrimp fingerlings to provinces with shrimp farming areas in the Mekong Delta requires a quarantine certificate at the origin. The interdisciplinary inspection team, including veterinary and fisheries officers, inspects administrative procedures. They will be fined according to regulations if there is no quarantine certificate. If the fingerling quality is in doubt, samples will be taken to check, but this isn't easy because the truck transporting shrimp is not allowed to keep for more than 10 hours.

According to the recommendation of the Soc Trang Fisheries Sub-Department, to find and buy quality shrimp, shrimp farming households join cooperatives and link with reputable companies to provide good fingerlings. At the same time, local fisheries officers will guide techniques to select healthy and quality shrimp to minimize risks during farming.

According to Truong Dinh Hoe - General Secretary of VASEP, fingerling is one of the current worrying problems of the shrimp industry. In the past, poor-quality shrimp seed has not been controlled and quarantined well when exporting and transporting; the management of shrimp seed production is still loose, and there are no standards or criteria for quality assessment.