Disease outbreaks in shrimp aquaculture cause massive mortality events affecting billions of individual animals, while disease management strategies involving antibiotics and chemicals have both welfare and environmental consequences.
Shrimp disease welfare involves mass mortality events where disease kills millions of individual animals within days. Whether dying shrimp experience suffering comparable to vertebrate animals remains uncertain, but the growing evidence for crustacean nociception suggests the precautionary approach of minimizing disease-related mass death events is warranted on welfare grounds. Disease prevention through improved biosecurity, reduced stocking density, and selective breeding for resistance reduces both the mortality events and the antibiotic use that creates secondary welfare and health consequences. Biosecure indoor RAS shrimp production offers better disease control with potential for higher welfare standards. Consumer demand for certified responsible aquaculture products creates market incentives for disease management practices that avoid the worst welfare outcomes.