The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei ), is currently the most cultured marine shrimp worldwide with 75% of global shrimp production in 2016 and it represent an important marine food source for the consumers. Induction of rapid egg production i n captive of this shrimp is usually induced by uni lateral eyestalk ablation which involves the removal or constriction of one eyestalk through cutting, cauterizing or tying to reduce the level of hormone that inhibit reproduction of shrimp in captivity . However, due to physiological imbalance and stress caused by this practice, it has attracted attention as an animal welfare issue . As a result the development of alternatives to the use of unilateral eyestalk ablation in hatcheries has become a priority for producers, retailers and seafood certifiers.
The potential of using shrimp without unilateral eyestalk ablation (non-ablated) in modern egg production practices has been evaluated and the quality of their offspring was assessed from early development stage to edible size under commercial scale. Our current results have demonstrat ed that non-ablated shrimp female can have similar level of productivity (eggs and nauplii per tank/day) as ablated animals if the broodstock are supplied high quality supplementary moist feed during pre-maturation. Non-ablated animals can produce more eggs and nauplii (>20% and >16%) than conventionally ablated female. T he mortality of non-ablated female over a typical breeding period is almost half the level of ablated female. The offspring produced by non-ablated females have similar growth and final survival to those from ablated female from early development stage to edible size . However, salinity stress tests indicated that offspring from non-ablated female have better resilience (5 to 10% more survival) . Our findings suggest that it is possible to replace eyestalk ablation in commercial scale shrimp hatcheries and the quality of the offspring can improve in term of resilience to environmental stress.
I would like to thank the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Labeyrie Fine Foods and Seajoy for their financial support . I would like to thank co-authors for their contribution in the project.