Although her team is working on a way of inoculating shrimp against the dreaded White Spot Syndrome Baculovirus Complex(WSSV), aquaculture researcher Lo Chu-fang said that there was much Taiwanese shrimp farmers could do to overcome the disease through better aquaculture practices.
"We found that during periods of stress, the level of WSSV increases in the shrimp's body at an astonishing rate," Lo said. "For instance, we have observed virus levels increasing 100,000-fold during spawning, which is a stressful event."
Local shrimp-rearing methods put a lot of stress on shrimp stocks because local shrimp farmers tend to adopt a very intensive approach, Lo said.
"We are talking about keeping up to a million shrimp per hectare of aquaculture pond whereas abroad 300,000 to 400,000 is the norm," Lo said.
Further Reading
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