INTENSIVE SHRIMP FARMING: FARM BIOSECURITY AND BIOFLOC TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION & CONTROL

For sustainable intensive shrimp farming there are two major factors need to be considered, farm biosecurity and biofloc technology. Biosecurity or biofloc technology alone cannot prevent or control emerging shrimp diseases such as WSSV, IMNV or EMS/AHPND. Farm biosecurity begins with design and construction of farm.  Development of shrimp farm layouts from simple pond base flow through system during 1980s to include reservoirs to treat incoming water before use was established. At present with modular system by using reservoirs to treat incoming water and with less water exchange provide biosecurity required to control the emerging viral issues (Taw, 2005, 2008 & 2011). With biosecure farm design and construction, biosecure operation system need to be in placed (Taw 2010, 2012). Recently, due to environmental issues and biosecurity, shrimp farms are required to have efficient waste water system to treat the waste water before discharging into environment. Considering present issues, biofloc technology appears to be the solution.  

With emerging new viral diseases such as EMS/AHPND in Asia, a preventive solution has become essential for sustainable production in shrimp farming starting from China in 2009 and spreading to Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. The biofloc technology was used in Indonesia without incidents of WSSV where it was a threat to shrimp farmers during early 2000s (Taw, 2005 & 2011; Taw et al, 2010, 2011 & 2013). However, during late 2000s the IMNV outbreaks in Indonesia caused a huge lost to Indonesian shrimp farmers as biofloc technology was not yet properly followed. During the period a small shrimp farm in Northern Bali using correct biofloc technology protocol with strict biosecurity survived (Taw & Setio, 2014). In Malaysia biofloc technology has been applied at Blue Archipelago shrimp farm since October 2011 and has been operating successfully without any incident of EMS/AHPND (Taw, et al. 2013 & 2014). Recently, according to In-Kwon (2012 &2014) there were more than 2,000 bacterial species in well-developed biofloc water. This biofloc may enhance immune activity based on mRNA expression of six immune-related genes - ProPO1, ProPO2, PPAE, ran, mas and SP1. A study at Bogor University, Indonesia and Ghent University, Belgium revealed that biofloc system contributes to the enhancement of immune response and survival after IMNV challenge regardless the carbon source (Ekasari, et al., 2014). Shrimp Farming with biofloc technology: Commercial Experience and Approaches to Disease Control article was published by Taw, 2014 in WAS. Very recently Biofloc Technology: A Practical Guidebook, was published by WAS (Avnimelech, 2012, 2015) which is a very useful guide for field application. The main economic advantages of biofloc technology over algae-based systems are higher growth rate, lower FCR, better biosecurity and sustainable production

Field experience has indicated that strict biosecurity and applying correct biofloc technology protocol in operation, shrimp farms has much higher probability of sustainable production. Applying biofloc technology only without biosecurity will not lead to sustainable production.

(For Biofloc session - Aquaculture 2016 Las Vegas, NV, USA