Over the last several decades many different companies have worked on domesticating Litopenaeus vannamei (more commonly known as Penaeus vannamei-or the white shrimp).   These programs are for the most part using a traditional approach to developing new lines of shrimp to fuel the rapid industrial growth that this species has been realizing year after year.   These programs are based on the  selection of animals with  phenotypes that are associated with domestication.   These includes growth rates and stress and specific pathogen tolerance. 

 

One group has succeeded far beyond what most  have even envisioned.   They brought resources to bear that no one else to date has been able to muster.   This has resulted in families that grow much quicker, tolerate exposures to pathogens at higher levels than wild type shrimp do and have the ability to grow at extremely high densities without issues from stress and aggressiveness that have heretofore made this more of a dream than a reality.    Their results are a testimony to the genetic plasticity of these animals.   Imagine a shrimp that grows to market size in 30 to 45 days with high survival rates, ADG rates of one gram and FCRs that are below 1.5 and you have an animal that can change the economics of much of the global production paradigm.

 

The company that is behind these changes, Charoen Pokphand Thailand (CPT), is now offering these dramatically improved animals for sale into the US and other markets.    They recognized early on that biosecurity was a serious impediment to this process and that as long as pathogens were moving from broodstock to the farm, disease would be an inevitable consequence.  CPT invested in multiple nucleus breeding centers that never allow  new genetic material in without extreme strictures of multiple cycle quarantines and extensive testing of animals for known and unknown pathogens.    This has resulted in the cleanest shrimp in the world.    They do not carry problems with them into production systems.   This ensures less impact from diseases and other factors that can impact overall growth rates.  

 

You can buy these animals in selected markets, including the US.     Here is the April Flyer for  "The Bolt".

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