Nghe An: Mass shrimp deaths, farmers lose billions

Many shrimp farming areas in Quynh Loc (Hoang Mai Town) are infected with disease and have died en masse. Photo: Thanh Phuc

According to reports from the People's Committees of districts, cities and towns, from the beginning of 2022 to now (early June 2022), shrimp disease has occurred in 109 households/191 ponds in 4 districts including: Hoang Mai Town, Quynh Luu, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau with a total diseased area of ​​65.57 hectares.

In there,shrimp with white spot diseaseis 34.98 ha, shrimp infected with acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease 28.87 ha, shrimp died due to the environment 1.72 ha. The disease mainly occurs in intensive and semi-intensive shrimp farming areas in Hoang Mai town, Quynh Luu district. Specifically, in Hoang Mai town, there are 4 farming areas including Quynh Di, Quynh Lien, Quynh Loc, Quynh Xuan with a total diseased area of ​​50.47 ha (Quynh Xuan alone has over 40 ha); Quynh Luu district has 3 farming areas including Quynh Bang, Quynh Minh, Quynh Luong with a total infected area of ​​14.5 ha; Dien Chau 0.2 ha and Nghi Loc 0.4 ha.

Shrimp died from pink body, white spot and acute hepatopancreatic disease. Photo: Thanh Phuc

This year, Mr. Nguyen Bao Dung's family (Quynh Xuan ward, Hoang Mai town) raised more than 1.6 hectares of shrimp. After more than a month of planting, the shrimp were infected with disease and died en masse. "In recent years, shrimp that have just been planted for a few dozen days have been infected with diseases such as hepatopancreas, white spot, and pink body. But this year is the worst, all shrimp ponds have been infected. The economic loss is not small. The initial cause is suspected to be poor quality seeds."

In 12 years of shrimp farming, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang's family (Quynh Loc, Hoang Mai town) has never suffered such heavy losses as in the 2022 shrimp crop. On an area of ​​4.5 hectares with 10 ponds, from March until now, her family has planted 3 batches of shrimp, but each batch has been sick.

“After 30-45 days of planting, the shrimp get pink body and white spots, and they die en masse. To save capital, we have to harvest them early and sell them at a cheap price. 5 ponds, which should have yielded billions of dong, are now sick and can only be sold at a low price for a few tens of millions of dong. Since the beginning of the year, the damage caused by shrimp disease has reached billions of dong,” Ms. Hang lamented.

Many ponds were planted in March and April. Now, the shrimp are sick and dying in large numbers, so we have to drain the ponds, dry them, and wait for the treatment to be completed before continuing to plant the next crop. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Quynh Xuan is the locality with the largest shrimp farming area in Hoang Mai town with 47 households farming on an area of ​​nearly 100 hectares. Each year, the income from shrimp farming is about 30-40 billion VND, many households have become rich from shrimp. However, in recent years, the area of ​​shrimp farming with diseases has increased, due to the impact of the Covid 19 epidemic, shrimp prices have decreased, it is difficult to sell, shrimp farmers are facing difficulties. Since the beginning of 2022, shrimp farming diseases have occurred in dozens of households with an area of ​​over 40 hectares.

According to people, to plant 1 hectare of shrimp, it takes an investment of hundreds of millions of dong. In the past two years, the price of shrimp feed has skyrocketed, input costs have also increased while shrimp prices have been unstable, causing farmers to suffer losses. In 2022, when the epidemic was controlled, shrimp prices stabilized and tended to increase gradually, people were excited to start the new farming season, but then encountered an epidemic, causing farmers to face many difficulties.

For the past three consecutive years, due to the high price of animal feed, high input costs and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, shrimp farmers have faced many difficulties. Photo: Thanh Phuc

According to analysis from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, shrimp disease is caused by many reasons. First is the problemlack of synchronous planning of farming infrastructure,degraded, some farming areas have silted up the supply canal system and do not have separate supply and drainage canals, freshwater ponds in the hot season do not have additional water sources. Second, some farming households release shrimp earlier than the recommended crop schedule of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, when the environment changes, making shrimp susceptible to disease outbreaks. When shrimp are infected, they do not report to the authorities to thoroughly treat the pathogens but handle and harvest them themselves.

Because pathogens are not thoroughly treated, pond disinfection does not comply with regulations, when discharged into the environment, pathogens can easily spread, infect, and circulate from one crop to another, from one farming area to another. In addition, due to extreme weather, erratic sunshine and rain, shrimp are shocked, their resistance is reduced, and disease outbreaks occur.

Thorough treatment of the environment, quality of shrimp seeds and application of technology in shrimp farming need to be focused on. Photo: Thanh Phuc

According to the assessment from the professional agency, the results of passive monitoring in farming areas in districts with intensive and semi-intensive shrimp farming show that: some dangerous pathogens are still circulating in many farming areas (AHPND, WSSV...), rapid, strong, extreme environmental changes... affect shrimp health, causing shrimp to grow slowly, develop poorly, and pathogens to develop.

Mr. Ngo Duc Quynh - Deputy Head of Department,Veterinary Departmentsaid: “Currently, in farming areas, the stocking area has increased sharply, the risk of disease continues to circulate and spread. Therefore, farming households need to proactively apply disease control measures, especially selecting quality breeds; carefully preparing the ponds, thoroughly treating pathogens in the environment before planting. At the same time, replicate the model of Shrimp Farming Community Groups to exchange and share experiences with people from the stage of selecting breeds, shrimp care measures; monitor each other in disease prevention and control...”.