The outbreak of the white spot syndrome (WSS), a highly lethal and contagious disease killing shrimps quickly, has set alarm bells ringing for shrimp farmers as shrimp exports of around 900 tonne from some 40% farms in Olpaad have been affected. The loss has been estimated at Rs 30 crore.
The aquaculturists are not ruling out the fact that almost all the farms in the area that export 2,000 tonne of shrimps annually are susceptible to the virus transmission. If this happens, then the farmers fear that the outbreak may wipe out the entire population of the shrimp farms in Olpaad incurring losses of Rs 70-80 crore.
Olpaad taluka in Surat district exports around 2,000 tonne of tiger prawns reared in some 1,400 shrimp ponds to Europe, the US, Japan, South Africa and Gulf countries.
This is for the first time that the aquaculturists in Olpaad are facing such a situation. Earlier, some 85 shrimp ponds in Samapur village in Navsari district that exports shrimps worth Rs 5 crore had been affected following the outbreak of WSS in April-2007.
Further Reading
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