Early Mortality Syndrome in shrimp aquaculture causes catastrophic mass mortality through acute hepatopancreatic necrosis, representing both a production crisis and a severe welfare event.
EMS outbreaks cause acute, catastrophic welfare harm through the rapid destruction of the hepatopancreas, leaving shrimp unable to absorb nutrients, with subsequent organ failure and death within days. The progression from infection to death in affected ponds represents mass acute suffering on a scale affecting hundreds of thousands to millions of individual shrimp simultaneously. Prevention through biosecurity represents both the economic and welfare optimal strategy, avoiding the mass mortality event entirely. Welfare-conscious production systems that invest in specific pathogen free seed stock, water treatment, and probiotic management reduce EMS risk while simultaneously addressing the welfare of shrimp not exposed to the pathogen through the improved water quality and reduced stress these practices provide.