Diseases in Asian Aquaculture VII

Status of shrimp diseases and advances in

shrimp health management

Donald V. Lightner
Department of Veterinary Science & Microbiology
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

ABSTRACT

Disease has had a major impact on shrimp aquaculture since shrimp farming became a
significant commercial entity in the 1970s. Diseases due to viruses, rickettsial-like bacteria,
true bacteria, protozoa, and fungi have emerged as major diseases of farmed shrimp. Many
of the diseases caused by bacteria, fungi and protozoans are now managed using improved
culture practices, routine sanitation, and the use of probiotics and chemotherapeutics.
However, the virus diseases have been far more problematic to manage and they have been
responsible for the most costly epizootics. Because of their socioeconomic significance to
shrimp farming, seven of the nine crustacean diseases currently listed (and two of three
proposed for listing) by the World Organisation for Animal Health (= Office International
des Epizooties or the OIE) are virus diseases of shrimp. The development and export of
Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) stocks of Penaeus vannamei (the Pacific white shrimp) from
the USA to the major shrimp farming countries of Latin America and SE Asia is cited by
FAO as being the main contributor to the industry’s recovery and subsequent expansion
following the viral pandemics of the early 1990’s. The development of SPF stocks of
P. vannamei is the topic of this review.

Key words: shrimp diseases, shrimp health management, aquaculture, OIE, SPF

Lightner, D.V. 2011. Status of shrimp diseases and advances in shrimp health management,
pp. 121-134. In Bondad-Reantaso, M.G., Jones, J.B., Corsin, F. and Aoki, T. (eds.). Diseases in
Asian Aquaculture VII. Fish Health Section, Asian Fisheries Society, Selangor, Malaysia. 385 pp.

Corresponding author: Donald V. Lightner, [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

As recently as a decade ago, much of the world’s production of farmed shrimp was directly
or indirectly dependent on wild shrimp stocks for the “seed” stock used to populate its
farms. In the Americas the most common practice was the collection and use of “wild seed”
(postlarvae or PLs), while in Asia it was more typical to produce PLs from wild-sourced
broodstock. While the practice of relying on the sea to provide its seed stock worked well for
nearly two decades, the practice provided the industry with little protection from significant
losses due to infectious diseases, such as those that were ultimately responsible for the major
global shrimp disease pandemics that began around 1991-1992 (Flegel, 2006; Lightner,
2005; Lightner et al., 2009).

DOMESTICATED STOCKS - THE FIRST STEP TO SPF STOCKS

By the mid-1970s a number of penaeid shrimp research programs were developing culture
systems and methods to close the life cycle of several penaeid shrimp species in captivity
(Forester and Beard, 1974; Wickins and Beard, 1978; Salser et al., 1978; Aquacop, 1983;
Moore and Brand, 1993). Some of these early research groups and institutions were
successful in growing, maturing, mating, spawning, and producing progeny from founder
shrimp stocks that had been reared for a full generation in captivity. Despite the early
successes in developing captive breeding populations of penaeid shrimp at these various
facilities, most of the shrimp farming industry remained dependent on the direct or indirect
use of wild or captive-wild shrimp stocks for the PLs used to stocks its farms (Argue and
Warren, 1999; Lightner, 2005; FAO, 2006). Nonetheless, during this period (~1980 to
~2000), the industry was experiencing much of its initial rapid growth. For example, before
WSSV was introduced into Ecuador in 1999, more than 100,000 people were involved in the
collection of wild postlarvae from the littoral zone for use in stocking Ecuador’s more than
175,000 ha of shrimp ponds (Rosenberry, 2006).

The reasons for the dependence of the shrimp farming industry on wild shrimp stocks
for seed were partially technical, but mostly economic. In most large shrimp farming
regions of the Americas, the PL requirements were highly seasonal. Hatcheries (called
“laboratories” in most of Latin America) were expensive to build, staff and run, and the
seasonal requirements for PLs left them operating below capacity for lengthy periods each
year. Further, wild PLs (“wild seed”) could be obtained in large numbers seasonally (and
often when needed most for seasonal stocking plans for farms) and for lower cost than
hatchery produced PLs (“lab seed”). Another reason, with both economic and technical
implications, was that the prevalence of Infectious Hypodermal and Hematopoietic
Necrosis Virus (IHHNV) in captive-wild Penaeus vannamei (the Pacific white shrimp)
broodstock typically increased the longer the captive-wild stocks were held in maturation
and/or hatchery facilities (Motte et al., 2003; Lightner et al., 2009). This made persistently
IHHNV-infected captive-wild broodstock essentially worthless within 2-3 months of use
as broodstock due to their declining performance. The use of P. vannamei broodstock with

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high IHHNV prevalence resulted in poor survival of infected larvae and the production
of poor quality PLs (Lightner and Redman, 1998; Motte et al., 2003). The surviving PLs
(“lab seed” or “maturation seed”) had a very high IHHNV prevalence relative to wild PLs.
Ponds stocked with such PLs typically had poorer production levels due to the development
of IHHNV-caused Runt-Deformity Syndrome (RDS) than did ponds stocked with wild PLs.
Long term and increasing problems with IHHNV, and subsequently with Taura Syndrome
(caused by TSV), and the arrival of White Spot Disease (caused by WSSV) in 1999 to
Central America, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru resulted in rapid changes in shrimp farming
strategies in the Americas. The yellow head and white spot disease pandemics in Asia that
began about 1992 and the paucity of domesticated SPF stocks of Asian penaeid shrimp
species, forced the worlds’ shrimp farming industries to change how shrimp are farmed
(Lightner, 2005; FAO, 2006; Lightner et al., 2009).

FAO (2006) credits the development and export from producers in the USA of SPF
(specific pathogen-free) P. vannamei and Penaeus stylirostris (the Pacific Blue Shrimp)
for this paradigm shift in shrimp farming. The FAO report goes on to comment that while
the export of SPF shrimp stocks from the USA to Asia and elsewhere in the world may not
have been significant in their quantity or total value, their impact has been considerable on
both the total quantity of shrimp produced and on global shrimp pricing. The FAO report
concludes that without the import and use of USA-produced SPF shrimp stocks it is arguable
if Asia’s major shrimp producing countries could have recovered from disease outbreaks
and the severe shortage of healthy wild-caught broodstock of native penaeids, much less
grown to achieve the record levels of production that currently characterize the Asian shrimp
farming sector (FAO, 2006).

In the wake of the extraordinary losses that occurred as a result of the viral pandemics
of the early 1990’s, the industry began to mature into a much more sustainable, technology-
based industry. The industry has largely recovered from the major viral pandemics and
it has begun a new phase of rapid growth (FAO, 2006). The adoption of new shrimp
farming technologies and the abandonment of practices which posed high disease risks
have contributed to the industry’s recovery and current expansion. Among the most notable
changes in culture practices has been the shift of the industry away from using wild stocks
for seed production to the use of domesticated stocks. This has been a consequence of
the ever increasing incidence in wild shrimp stocks of diseases like WSSV, IHHNV, and
other significant diseases that negatively affect broodstock or their progeny (Lightner,
2005; Flegel, 2006). This has made the collection of wild postlarvae (PLs) and wild adult
broodstock for the production of PLs for use as seed stock, a risky practice. With the
declining dependence of the industry on wild stocks in Asia and in the Americas, the use of
domesticated lines of specific pathogen-free (SPF) P. vannamei recently surpassed Penaeus
monodon (the Giant Black Tiger Shrimp) as the dominant farmed shrimp species in Asia.
This paradigm switch in the species being farmed occurred within 5 years after the first SPF
P. vannamei stocks were introduced in quantity to Asia. The use of SPF P. vannamei has led
to improved production and predictable crops virtually everywhere that was once dominated

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by the culture of Penaeus chinensis (the Chinese White Shrimp) or P. monodon. Hence, the
most significant single advance in shrimp health management was perhaps the development
of domesticated lines of SPF P. vannamei.

DEVELOPMENT OF SPF STOCKS

The term “SPF” was in widespread use in large number of terrestrial animal, aquatic
animal and plant agriculture industries prior to its being applied to shrimp aquaculture
(Wyban, 1992; Wyban et al., 1992; Lotz, 1992; Carr et al., 1994; Pruder et al., 1995; Lotz,
1997a, 1997b; Moss and Moss, 2009). SPF culture practices were commonplace in the
poultry, swine and trout producing industries for many years and are still used as a way to
avoid disease in otherwise susceptible stocks, when no other means of therapy or prevention
(without the increased costs or other problems associated with vaccination) are available
(Zavala, 1999). The application of the SPF concept to shrimp farming was a relatively recent
event and it occurred well after the technologies had been developed that were necessary
to close the life cycle of the penaeid shrimp in the laboratory and begin the process of
producing domesticated breeding lines of penaeid shrimp. The development of SPF shrimp
stocks became possible with the simultaneous development of the necessary infrastructure,
in terms of biosecurity, diagnostic methods and trained personnel, to successfully select
founder populations of candidate SPF stocks from wild or cultured stocks and domesticate
those stocks, following the ICES Guidelines (ICES, 1995), in the absence of specific
disease agents under biosecure conditions (Moss and Pruder, 1999; Bullis and Pruder, 1999;
Lightner, 2003a, 2003b, 2005; Lee and O’Bryen, 2003; Scarfe et al., 2006; Lightner et al.,
2009; Moss and Moss, 2009).

The first SPF stocks developed by the U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Program (USMSFP)
were developed in the spirit of the ICES Code (The International Council for the Exploration
of the Sea; Code of Practice to Reduce the Risks of Adverse Effects Arising from the
Introduction on Non-indigenous Marine Species - Bartley et al., 1996) (Table 1) (Wyban
et al., 1992; Carr et al., 1994; Pruder et al., 1995). The determination of which specific
pathogens the selected stocks of candidate SPF shrimp were to be free of was based on a
working list of pathogenic, diagnosable, and excludable pathogens. The SPF list necessarily
changed over time as new diseases, such as those due to WSSV, TSV, IMNV and others,
emerged and caused or showed the potential to cause serious pandemics (Lightner et al.,
2009). The most current working list for the U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Program includes
10 viruses or virus groups (WSSV, the YHV group, TSV, IHHNV, hepatopancreatic
parvovirus (HPV), Baculovirus penaei (BP), monodon baculovirus (MBV), baculoviral
mid-gut gland necrosis (BMN), and infectious myonecrosis (IMNV) and Penaeus vannamei
nodavirus (PvNV)), certain classes of parasitic protozoa (microsporidians, haplospordians,
and gregarines), and the bacterial agent of necrotizing hepatopancreatitis, or NHP (Table 2).
The USMSFP list closely approximates the OIE listed diseases of penaeid shrimp, with all
seven of the currently OIE-listed virus diseases of shrimp (and one viral and one bacterial
disease being considered for listing) being on the USMSFP list.

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Table 1. Recommended steps in the ICES guidelines for risk reduction in aquatic species
introductions (modified from Sindermann, 1988, 1990 and Lightner, 2005).
Original ICES Guidelines Adapted to SPF shrimp development

1. Conduct comprehensive disease study 1. Identify stock of interest (i.e., cultured or

in native habitat. wild).
2. Transfer {founder stock} system in
2. Evaluate stock’s health/disease history.
recipient area.
3. Maintain and study closed system pop- 3. Acquire and test samples for specific
ulation. listed pathogens (SLPs) and pests.
4. Import and quarantine founder (F0)
4. Develop broodstock in closed system.
population; monitor F0 stock.
5. Grow isolated F1 individuals; destroy
5. Produce F1 generation from F0 stock.
original introductions.
6. Culture F1 stock through critical
6. Introduce small lots to natural waters
stage(s); monitor general health and test
- continue disease study.
for SLPs.
7. If SLPs, pests, other significant patholo-
gies are not detected, F-1 stock may be
defined as SPF and released from quar-
antine.

To begin the process of developing an SPF stock a candidate wild or farmed stock of
interest was identified (Fig. 1). If available, samples of the stock were taken and tested using
the most appropriate diagnostic and pathogen detection methods available for the specific
pathogens of concern. If none were found, a founder population (F0) of the “candidate
SPF” stock was acquired and reared in primary quarantine. During primary quarantine, the
F0 stock was monitored for signs of disease, sampled, and tested periodically for specific
pathogens. If any pathogens of concern were detected, the stock was destroyed. Those stocks
that tested negative for pathogens of concern through primary quarantine (which ran from 30
days to as much as one year for some stocks) were moved to a separate secondary quarantine
facility for maturation, selection, mating, and production of a second (F1) generation. The F1
stocks were maintained in quarantine for further testing for specific pathogens of concern.
Those that tested negative were designated as SPF, and used to produce domesticated lines
of SPF shrimp (Moss et al., 2003; Lightner, 2005; Lightner et al., 2009) (Fig. 1). With this
practice, the definition for SPF shrimp stocks produced by the USMSFP meant that the stock
of interest had at least two years of documented historical freedom of the disease agents
listed on its working list of specific pathogens, that the stock has been cultured in biosecure
facilities, and that the stock was either cultured under conditions where the listed disease
agents would have produced recognizable disease if any were present and/or that the stock
has been subjected to routine surveillance and testing for the listed pathogens (Lightner,
2005; Lightner et al., 2009) . Those pathogens on the USMSFP SPF list have also met

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Table 2. Current U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Consortium (USMSFC) working list of
“specific” and excludable pathogens of American penaeids and Asian penaeids
for 2008-2009 (adapted from and Lightner et al., 2009).
Pathogen
Pathogen Type Pathogen/Pathogen Group
Categorya

* WSSV - white spot syndrome virus (Nimaviridae, new

Viruses C-1
family)b
* YHV, GAV, LOV - the Oka viruses (Roniviridae, new
C-1
family)b
* TSV - (Dicistroviridae, new family in the picornavirus
C-1
superfamily) b
* BPc - an occluded enteric baculovirus C-2
* MBVc - an occluded enteric baculovirus C-2
BMNc - a nonoccluded enteric baculo-like virus C-2
* IHHNV - a systemic parvovirus C-1
SMV - an enteric parvovirus C-2
** HPV - enteric parvoviruses C-2
* IMNV - Infectious myonecrosis virus (putative totivirus) C-1,2
PvNV - Penaeus vannamei nodavirus C-2
Procaryotes ** NHP-bacterium - Alpha proteobacteria C-2
Protozoa Microsporidians C-2
Haplosporidians C-2
C-3
Gregarines

* OIE listed pathogen (OIE 2008).

** Listed as “under study” (OIE 2008).
a
Pathogen category (modified from Lotz et al., 1995), with C-1 pathogens defined as excludable
pathogens that can potentially cause catastrophic losses in one or more American penaeid
species; C-2 pathogens are serious, potentially excludable; and C-3 pathogens have minimal
effects, but may be excluded from breeding centers, hatcheries, and some types of farms.
b
Mayo, 2002a, 2002b.
c
The 1995 Committee report on virus taxonomy (Murphy et al., 1995) removed crustacean
baculoviruses from the Baculoviridae and assigned them to a position of unknown taxonomic
position. Nonetheless, BP, MBV, and BMN are most like members of the Baculoviridae (Faquet
et al., 2005), and for practicality, they are listed here as baculoviruses.

certain criteria including: (a) the pathogen(s) must be excludable; (b) adequate diagnostic
and pathogen detection methods are available; and (c) that the pathogen(s) poses significant
threat of causing disease and production losses, criteria which are also among those required
for disease listing by the OIE.

After the criteria set forth in the ICES Code had been met and a particular stock is
declared SPF of specified diseases/pathogens, maintenance of SPF status required that the
domesticated SPF stocks be the subject of a routine surveillance program. To be functional,

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Figure 1. Steps to SPF stock development as developed by the U.S. Marine Shrimp
Farming Program

an SPF breeding program must have a surveillance program with both regularly scheduled
targeted and general (passive) surveillance components. Molecular diagnostic methods have
become as important as classical methods (such as routine histopathology and microbiology)
to the shrimp culture industry in recent years, and are especially applicable to routine
surveillance programs that are necessary to support claims of disease freedom (such as with
SPF stocks) and to monitor shrimp stocks in farms (Subasinghe et al., 2004; OIE, 2006; OIE,
2008; Lightner, 2005; Lightner et al., 2009).

Because the term SPF is poorly understood and often misused, the term “high health” has
also been borrowed from other animal producing industries for use with shrimp to designate
shrimp stocks that were developed as SPF, and which may be free of infection by specific
disease agents, but which are no longer contained within a designated biosecure SPF facility
(Pruder et al., 1995). SPF and high health stocks of P. vannamei were introduced by the
USMSFP and used successfully in U.S. shrimp farms in the mid-1990’s and this resulted
in nearly doubling the production per crop that had been previously obtained at the same
farms in previous years when the farms cultured non-selected lines of P. vannamei, which in
previous crops, had been persistently affected by RDS due to chronic infection by IHHNV
(Wyban, 1992; Pruder et al., 1995; Lotz et al., 1995; Moss et al., 2003).

Beginning in 1999, significant quantities of SPF P. vannamei had been introduced into
East Asia and found to perform well. By 2006, nearly 3 million metric tonnes of the marine
penaeid shrimp were being produced from farms and these shrimp accounted for almost half
of the world’s total shrimp supply (FAO, 2006). More than half (~57%) of that 3 million

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pounds was made up of P. vannamei. Ironically, more P. vannamei were farmed in 2006
in Asia, where the species was introduced, than in the Americas where it is native. FAO in
its 2006 publication, “State of world Aquaculture,” credited the development and export
(from producers in the USA) of SPF P. vannamei for this paradigm shift in shrimp farming.
The use of SPF P. vannamei has led to less disease, improved survival and predictable
crops virtually everywhere that was previously dominated by P. chinensis and P. monodon
(FAO, 2006).

SPECIFIC PATHOGEN RESISTANT (SPR) SHRIMP STOCKS

After domesticated SPF stocks were developed some SPF/SPR stocks were successfully
developed and applied to management of certain shrimp virus diseases, specifically Taura
Syndrome (TS) and Infectious Hypodermal and Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHHN) in some
locations (Lightner and Redman, 1998; Fegan and Clifford, 2001; Moss and Moss, 2009;
Lightner et al., 2009). While unselected stocks of P. vannamei have a high degree of
resistance to IHHN, the degree of resistance has been improved in some locations by the
breeding of selected individuals which show greater resistance to IHHN and RDS (a chronic
form of IHHN disease in P. vannamei) than unselected stocks (Fegan and Clifford, 2001;
Lightner et al., 2009). From some of these stocks, IHHNV-free founder stocks have been
developed, and these have the advantage of being SPR for IHHN disease, but also being SPF
for IHHNV and other diseases.

SPR stocks have been most successfully used in culture regions where TSV, IHHNV or
both diseases are enzootic in wild penaeid shrimp stocks or where the viruses are readily
transmitted within or between farms. “SPR-43” stocks of P. stylirostris were the first SPR
stocks developed and they are the primary stocks currently farmed in New Caledonia and
French Polynesia. Before WSSV reached Mexico in 1999, SPR stocks of L. stylirostris
(SPR-43 developed in French Polynesia and Super Shrimp developed in Venezuela) were
the dominant shrimp stocks cultured in Mexico and they accounted for nearly 80% of the
farmed shrimp produced in Mexico in 1998.

The SPR-43 and Super Shrimp lines of P. stylirostris were developed over time in captive
stocks of P. stylirostris by breeding survivors that were persistently infected with IHHNV.
Breeding survivors to survivors eventually resulted in continuous domesticated lines of
P. stylirostris with a high degree of resistance to IHHN disease, despite being persistently
infected with the virus. Some lines of Super Shrimp were found in laboratory challenge
studies with IHHNV to be resistant even to infection and to quickly clear the virus after
challenge (Tang et al., 2010). The Super Shrimp line was developed using the same strategy
as was used for SPR-43. Super Shrimp came from breeding survivors of stocks initially
imported into Venezuela from Panama. When the stocks were introduced into Mexico in
~1994 1995, the SPR-43 stock was at about its 18th generation in captivity and the Super
Shrimp lines were at about their 16th generation (Fegan and Clifford, 2001; Lightner, 2005;
Lightner et al., 2009).

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More recently, SPR stocks of SPF P. vannamei were developed by the USMSFP by
selectively breeding for TSV resistance. In screening the various lines of SPF, domesticated
P. vannamei reared by the program for TSV resistance in controlled laboratory challenge
trials, certain geographic stocks were found to present better survival than stocks whose
founders were derived from other geographic regions. These were selectively bred for
multiple generations, and with each generation checked experimentally for TSV resistance.
Such SPR stocks of P. vannamei (which are also SPF for all OIE and USMSFP listed
diseases of penaeid shrimp - Table 2), are currently commercially available from most
broodstock suppliers in the USA. Most of the TSV resistant SPF/SPR stocks currently
available have documented survival rates of 80 to 100% in laboratory challenge studies
with four TSV isolates that represent the main geographic genotypes/biotypes of this virus.
The Belize genotype of TSV is the most virulent biotype of the four known TSV genotypes
(Moss and Moss, 2009; Lightner et al., 2009). Fortunately, selection for resistance to the
reference TSV genotype/biotype (obtained from Ecuador and Hawaii in 1994) has been
found to work well for all TSV genotypes/biotypes to date (Lightner et al., 2009).

FUTURE OF SPF STOCK DEVELOPMENT

Following the model for SPF stock development used by the USMSFP for the development
of SPF P. vannamei, companies in Asia, Madagascar and the USA have developed
some SPF P. monodon and Penaeus chinensis stocks and others are developing SPF
P. indicus (Hennig et al., 2005; Pantoja et al., 2005; Lightner et al., 2009). Despite the
significant challenges posed by disease, the shrimp farming industry has responded
to the challenges posed and it has developed methods to manage disease and
mature into a more sustainable industry. Adoption of the SPF concept in the
domestication of P. vannamei and development of the species for
aquaculture was among the milestones that have led to the industry’s current
explosive growth and apparent sustainability (FAO, 2006). As it has in
other meat producing industries, the development of SPF stocks of P. vannamei,
P. stylirostris, P. monodon, and other penaeid species has become central to the sustainability
of modern shrimp farming. Further development through selective breeding of SPF stocks
for disease resistance and other desired characteristics is very likely to be a principle
characteristic of the industry for the indefinite future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grant support for the author of this review was provided by the United States Marine
Shrimp Farming Consortium under Grant No. 2004-38808-21115 and from Hatch Project
ARZT-136860-H-02-135 (both through the National Food and Agriculture Institute, U.S.
Department of Agriculture), and special grants from Darden Restaurants (Orlando, FL) and
Morrison Enterprises (Hastings, NE).

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