Robins McIntosh, vice president of CP Foods (CPF), said that China’s shrimp farming industry suffers from diseases frequently, and the harvest is not as good as one year. In 2018, the output of vannamei shrimp may be as low as 520,000 tons. "Shrimp blood cell iridescent virus (SHIV)" is spreading in China. This disease has a very high fatality rate and must be paid attention to by the Chinese industry.
In the past three years, China’s shrimp farming industry has been declining. Robins McIntosh, a veteran of the global shrimp industry and vice president of CP Foods (CPF), said that 2018 will be the year with the lowest shrimp production in China, and the production of Penaeus vannamei may be low. To 520,000 tons. On the other hand, China's shrimp product consumer market is expanding every year. Imported shrimp has shown an exponential growth. The total annual import volume has reached 500,000 tons. Many international exporters have poured in, and the market turmoil has caused McIntosh's concerns.
Last month, at the Aquaculture Roundtable (TARS) held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, McIntosh made a detailed analysis of the production, sales, and market conditions of the global shrimp industry (see "Recommended Reading" at the end of the article for related articles).
Compared with several major shrimp producing areas such as India, Vietnam and Ecuador, China’s shrimp production is stretched. Although the industry has analyzed many reasons for the reduction in production, including rising costs, legal regulations, and shrimp seedling quality, McIntosh believes that China’s shrimp farming industry is the largest The problem is still disease.
He pointed out that the Chinese shrimp farming industry had experienced the ravages of acute hepatopancreas necrosis (AHPND), leukoplakia, and hepatoenterariasis (EHP). At that time, the industry was discussing these issues. Later, the AHPND epidemic gradually subsided. Many experiences and lessons have been summed up and many new breeding models have been developed. This is very worthy of recognition and appreciation.
However, McIntosh believes that since AHPND, Chinese farmers' attention to diseases has begun to decline, especially the newly emerging "Shrimp Blood Cell Iridescent Virus (SHIV)", which has obviously not been paid enough attention in the industry. "This is a new type of deadly virus. The industry has no statistics on how harmful it is." McIntosh said, "I don't know if this virus has been found in other regions other than China. Our knowledge is really too little. The industry must be alert to new pathogens!"
Shrimp blood cell iridescent virus (SHIV)
SHIV was discovered by researchers from Qingdao Yellow Sea Research Institute during sampling at a shrimp farm in Zhejiang Province in December 2014. The pathogen of this disease was identified as an iridescent virus, which infects the hematopoietic tissue, gills, hepatopancreas and muscle of shrimp. This virus not only infects Penaeus vannamei, but has also been found in samples of Penaeus chinensis and Macrobrachium rosenbergii.
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SHIV literature published in NCBI
According to literature, after the pathogen is isolated and reinfected, the lethality rate is 100% within 15 days. The symptoms of SIV infection include bleaching, hepatopancreas rupture, jejunum, jejunum, and soft shell.
The literature pointed out that from 2014 to 2016, researchers sampled in 20 counties in 5 shrimp farming provinces in China and found that 15% of cultured shrimp samples (Penaeus vannamei, Penaeus chinensis, Macrobrachium rosenbergii) were infected with SIV. Since the virus samples have been found in many regions of China, the origin of the pathogen may not be Zhejiang, but the virus has spread to shrimp farms in many regions of China.
In the article, the scientific researchers called on experts in the Chinese aquaculture industry, farmers, and enterprise service personnel to pay close attention to the trend of the SIV epidemic, and take effective measures to prevent the outbreak of the disease and restore the loss.