Shrimp farming is the world's most economically significant aquaculture sector. Disease outbreaks cause mass mortality events that raise both welfare and economic concerns at enormous scale.
Shrimp disease outbreaks cause mortality events of extraordinary scale. A single pond experiencing white spot syndrome virus can lose its entire stock of hundreds of thousands of animals within days. The welfare of animals dying from viral infection - showing erratic swimming, loss of appetite, and behavioral changes before death - represents suffering at a scale that dwarfs most other animal welfare events. The intensification of shrimp farming to maximize yield creates the crowding conditions that facilitate rapid disease spread. Biosecurity investments reduce outbreak frequency and thereby reduce both mortality events and the chronic stress of disease-susceptible conditions. The application of precautionary welfare consideration to shrimp, given sentience uncertainty, suggests that reducing disease occurrence and providing better environmental conditions are warranted independent of their economic benefits.