Shrimp farming faces catastrophic disease challenges including early mortality syndrome and white spot disease, with significant welfare implications for the billions of shrimp farmed annually.
Shrimp welfare sits in an acutely uncertain scientific space. The precautionary approach acknowledges that billions of individual animals affected by disease events may experience something akin to suffering, even if we cannot be certain. During EMS and WSSV outbreaks, affected shrimp show lethargy, loss of appetite, and discolouration before mass death - observable signs consistent with acute illness. The welfare of shrimp during emergency pond draining and harvesting is largely unstudied. From a scale perspective, even a small probability of individual suffering multiplied across hundreds of billions of animals per year creates a significant potential welfare concern warranting precautionary attention and research investment.