Prawn disease outbreaks cause mass mortality that represents both enormous welfare costs and economic losses, requiring robust biosecurity to prevent.
Mass mortality events in prawn farms kill billions of individual animals. Even if prawn sentience is uncertain, the precautionary principle suggests these mass deaths are welfare events of significant moral concern. Biosecurity investment prevents these events through exclusion of pathogens rather than managing outbreaks after they occur. SPF broodstock programmes represent a preventive welfare investment with both ethical and economic justification.