Disease outbreaks in shrimp aquaculture cause mass mortality events affecting billions of animals while driving antibiotic use and environmental impacts across production systems.
Shrimp disease management involves welfare considerations at multiple scales. Mass mortality events from WSSV or EMS cause the deaths of billions of individual animals — if shrimp are sentient as growing evidence suggests, these events represent welfare catastrophes of enormous scale. The route to disease is typically poor welfare conditions: overcrowding creates the stress and density that pathogens exploit. Prevention through stocking density management and water quality optimization improves both welfare and disease outcomes simultaneously — the same alignment of interests seen in other farmed species. Antibiotic use for disease management drives resistance with human health consequences, while also failing to address the underlying welfare deficiencies enabling disease. SPF broodstock programs and biosecurity investments represent welfare-aligned approaches that reduce disease incidence rather than treating its consequences.