Industry and university join hands to end Penaeus vannamei seedling virus

Fresh shrimp bouncing alive, the meat is fat and delicious, is the favorite of glutton. Taiwan used to be the kingdom of shrimp culture. Pingtung, Hsinchu and Ilan looked out, and the fish and shrimp ponds were connected to the horizon. Shrimp culture in Taiwan reached its peak in 1987, with an annual output of one million tons and more than half of its export, ranking first in the world in terms of output and export.

The shining killer of shrimp

The early shrimp fry culture technology was introduced from Japan and adopted high-density culture technology. although the breeding risk is not low, the relative profit is considerable, earning hundreds of millions of yuan of foreign exchange for Taiwan every year. But environmental pollution, coupled with the introduction of shrimp seedlings from different regions by some shrimp farmers, as a result of intensive farming, shrimp seedlings once attacked by the virus, like a prairie fire out of control.

Shrimp white spot disease is currently one of the most serious diseases in the global shrimp industry, and the mortality rate of infected shrimp is as high as 100% within three to ten days. Even if the shrimp is slightly infected and the shrimp does not die immediately, the virus may still lurk in the shrimp. Once the culture environment changes, it will still induce the proliferation of the white spot virus latent in the shrimp, and quickly infect the whole pond, resulting in a large number of deaths. At present, the preventable method is to regularly detect whether shrimp ponds are infected with the virus in the process of cultivation.

Ruiji International, which was originally engaged in the detection of human genetic diseases, has nothing to do with aquaculture and entered the market for shrimp virus disease detection products entirely because of fate. Liu Zhengzhong, general manager of Ruiji International, and Sucheng, CEO of Ruiji International, are good friends of shrimp farmers. When there is something wrong with the cultured shrimp, I asked them if they could help. Since virus detection is Ruiji International's specialty, in 1995, it expanded from the detection of human disease virus to the development of aquatic viral disease detection products.

Detection of virus to save shrimp farmers

Taiwan has two advantages in developing shrimp virus detection. One is that Taiwan used to be a shrimp farming kingdom, and shrimp farmers introduced shrimp species and seedlings from different regions in order to make a profit. Although it caused a shrimp disaster, it was relatively easy to obtain samples of diseased shrimp. Second, Taiwan is an important place for shrimp virus research. Kuo Kuang-hsiung, Luo Chu-fang, and Huang Chung-hsiung, professors of the Department of Zoology at National Taiwan University, and Huang Chung-hsiung, Professor of the Department of Entomology, are world-class authorities.

Through technology transfer, Ruiji International has obtained a number of shrimp white spot virus research results of Professor Luo Zhufang and others, combined with biotechnology to develop IQ2000 detection reagents, which can be divided into four levels according to the degree of infection: very mild, mild, moderate and severe infection. The test results are of great help in virus prevention and control, with high sensitivity but much cheaper price and equipment.

In the traditional way of farming, if shrimp farmers buy shrimp seedlings from unknown sources and without quarantine, they usually go through the period from Spring Festival to Ching Ming Festival. As long as the weather is unstable, a large number of shrimp diseases may break out. Therefore, many shrimp farmers have the mentality of "relying on heaven for a living, and then restocking at the worst". Ruiji International persuaded shrimp farmers to set up testing in all aspects of the breeding process from growing shrimp and shrimp seedlings to processing plants through IQ2000 testing reagents, so as to detect hidden crises in advance and immediately take contingency measures to reduce the waste of resources.

Shrimp white spot virus is the shining killer that makes Taiwan's shrimp kingdom decadent, and it is also causing shrimp farmers around the world to "hold their heads and burn them." With the help of the "shrimp white spot virus detection system", which allows shrimp farmers to DIY on their own, it reverses the fate of shrimp farmers to watch heaven and sing the song of triumph in the shrimp sea.

(the writer is a consultant of China Productivity Center)