Gradually, concern for the welfare of aquatic invertebrates produced on a commercial/industrial scale is crossing the boundaries of science and becoming a demand of other societal actors. The objective of this paper is to propose protocols for assessing the Penaeus vannamei welfare during the stages of reproduction, larval rearing, transport, and growing-out in earthen ponds and to discuss, based on a literature review, the processes and perspectives associated with the development and application of on-farm shrimp welfare protocols. Protocols were developed based on four of the five domains of animal welfare: nutrition, environment, health, and behaviour. The indicators related to the psychology domain were not considered a separate category, and the other proposed indicators indirectly assessed this domain. For each indicator, the corresponding reference values were defined based on literature and field experience, apart from the three possible scores related to animal experience on a continuum from positive (score 1) to very negative (score 3). It is very likely that non-invasive methods for measuring the farmed shrimp welfare, such as those proposed here, will become a standard tool for farms and laboratories and that it will become increasingly challenging to produce shrimp without considering their welfare throughout the production cycle.
The 2013 global farmed shrimp production totalled 4.3 million tons, whereas the production of Litopenaeus vannamei as non‐native species represented the 64% of that amount. The risks of introducing non‐native or exotic species are a growing environmental concern. Therefore, the objective of this study was to discuss updated information about the introduction of non‐native species and to evaluate the efficiency indicators of non‐native species in contrast to native ones. The results of a systematic revision of the publications about shrimp farming are presented, comparing the zootechnical performance of native and non‐native species, with the use of meta‐analysis tools. The conducted search returned 4680 results, corresponding to the articles that included one of the criteria previously established by the present work. Seven publications, which included 22 studies, met the requirements for the meta‐analysis. The effect size calculated was positive, meaning that, according to the considered data, the use of non‐native species resulted generally in higher values of growth rate in relation to the native species observed. Other aspects like the emergence and dissemination of the main viral diseases affecting global shrimp farming were also revised. We conclude that, although the advantages of using non‐native species, especially L. vannamei, over native species are clear, there are enough compelling evidences to support the viability of small‐scale native species farming. We also discussed why big companies, governments and associations related to the production and commerce of farmed shrimp should finance and support the development of native species farming.
(Melo, 1996). É um crustáceo de Recebido em 21 de março de 2013 Aceito em 11 de fevereiro de 2014 E-mail: kelly.cottens@icmbio.gov.br grande importância econômica para pescadores artesanais e extrativistas (Glaser, 2003). Segundo dados oficiais, o caranguejo-uçá foi o terceiro crustáceo mais capturado em 2010, com o total de 8535 toneladas, ou 14,93% da produção nacional de crustáceos (Brasil, 2012).
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