Reproductive performance and offspring quality of non-ablated Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) under intensive commercial scale conditions

Abstract

Reproductive performance and offspring quality of non-ablated Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) under intensive commercial scale conditions Simão Zacarias *

Increased robustness of postlarvae and juveniles from non-ablated Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, broodstock post-challenged with pathogenic isolates of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VpAHPND) and white spot disease (WSD)

“…Ablation can also lower the nutritional reserves of the offspring (Wickins and Lee, 2002;Racotta et al, 2003) possibly decreasing their chance of survival during disease outbreaks. This study and previous study (Zacarias et al 2019), confirms that ablation has an impact not only on the female broodstock, but that negative effects are carried on through to the offspring. Eliminating ablation will require hatcheries to accept that this can be done without significant impact on their production and profitability and that there may be additional benefits in adopting a non-ablation approach.…”

“…The growth performance and final survival of the offspring of non-ablated shrimp is not different from those of ablated shrimp, but a previous study (Zacarias et al, 2019) suggests an improvement in their ability to cope with stress measured as survival after salinity stress testing. Salinity stress testing, a common method used by shrimp farmers to check postlarvae quality when sourcing, however, mainly relates to the ability of the PL to withstand environmental stress and does not give any indication of the ability of the shrimp to withstand a disease challenge.…”

“…Eliminating ablation will require hatcheries to accept that this can be done without significant impact on their production and profitability and that there may be additional benefits in adopting a non-ablation approach. Zacarias et al (2019) have demonstrated that it is possible to use NAF under commercial conditions and achieve similar productivity to AF and that the final survival and growth performance in larviculture, nursery and grow-out of their offspring is also similar to AF.…”

“…Growth performance and final survival of offspring produced from non-ablated broodstock have been demonstrated to be similar to those from ablated broodstock in larviculture, nursery and grow-out (Zacarias et al, 2019). Salinity stress tests, however, suggest that non-ablated females can produce more resilient animals (Zacarias et al, 2019).…”

“…Given concerns regarding the practice of eyestalk ablation with respect to animal welfare (Taylor et al, 2004;Little et al, 2018), it has been suggested that similar productivity in broodstock can be realised without eyestalk ablation, through the application of husbandry interventions including pre-maturation conditioning, increased stocking density and altered sex ratios (Zacarias et al, 2019). Trials conducted using these practices have demonstrated that rapid maturation and re-maturation of non-ablated P. vannamei females can be obtained while maintaining similar levels of eggs/nauplii productions as ablated females (Zacarias et al, 2019).…”