Selective breeding programs in shrimp aquaculture are improving disease resistance and growth rates, but welfare implications of genetic selection deserve careful consideration.
Shrimp aquaculture genetics intersects with welfare in ways that are underexplored. Selective breeding for growth and disease resistance has transformed production efficiency, but whether genetic selection inadvertently affects stress physiology, pain sensitivity, or behavioral repertoire in commercially important ways remains poorly characterized. Disease resistance improvements clearly have welfare benefits — shrimp experiencing severe disease suffer, and reducing disease incidence reduces that suffering. However, the welfare of shrimp experiencing the breeding process itself, including selection procedures and high-density broodstock management, deserves consideration. As genome editing tools are applied to shrimp, welfare assessment of edited lines should be built into the research and regulatory framework from the outset rather than added retrospectively.