Shrimp aquaculture is highly vulnerable to disease outbreaks that kill billions of animals rapidly, with early mortality syndrome and white spot syndrome virus causing mass mortality events involving significant welfare costs.
Shrimp disease outbreaks represent welfare crises at enormous scale — billions of individuals dying from pathogen-induced damage over days. The welfare significance depends on shrimp sentience, which remains uncertain, but the scale of mortality during major disease events is so large that even precautionary welfare concern warrants better disease prevention. Biosecurity improvements that prevent disease outbreaks benefit both production economics and the welfare of the billions of individual shrimp who avoid disease-related mortality.