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Impacts Of White Spot On Mexican Shrimp

Crustaceans Health +1 more

MEXICO - Some 90 fish farms in Sonora have been affected by the white spot virus, the president of the Committee ofAquacultural Health in Sonora (Cosaes), Humberto Olea Miguel Ruiz has confirmed.

According to the president, it will only be possible to evaluate the true economic impact of the virus at the end of the shrimp harvest, reports FIS.com.

"The productive and economic impact will only be trully known after the completion of the final harvest," said Mr Ruiz.

The Cosaes president said that production could be reduced by 50 per cent this year, compared to 2009. Due to fish farms only being able to pre-harvest smaller sizes of 6-9 grams. Sonora produced around 81,000 tonnes of shrimp last year.

For now, experts from the Committee recommended maintaining low costs and to try to complete the production cycle by September.

Cosaes will attempt to avoid temperature drops which begin from the beginning of the last week of that month.
,br> In addition, shrimp farmers will have to take into account the probability of rain and low oxygen, factors influencing the mortality of shrimp, as the virus is more likely to be present, said the official in Diario del Yaqui.

The white spot also reached Ahome shrimp farms in Sinaloa during June. In order to not lose all the shrimp, producers have harvested those which are only 8 grams in size.

At that time, the secretary of the Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives in Northern Sinaloa and Southern Sonora, Manuel Bojórquez Andalón, said that a possible solution to abate the disease would be the construction of jetties.

The white spot virus was the cause of many shrimp deaths, and can affect upto a 100 per cent of the population over a period of 3-10 days.

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