Does abiotic stress influence the white fecal disease incidence and its intensity in Penaeus vannamei shrimp farms?

Abstract

Shrimps are grown in an outdoor pond environment wherein both the abiotic and biotic factors influence each other constantly. A study conducted to validate the hypothesis (H_o) which presumes that rapid and extended changes in abiotic factors in an aquatic environment may not influence the manifestation of pathogens. The results show that vagaries in abiotic factors particularly temperature and salinity combined with high stocking density and smaller size shrimp in early grow-out phases significantly influenced the incidence and severity of white feces syndrome (WFS) disease in shrimp farms (p < 0.01 and p < 0.08). Further, the multiple correspondence analyses done to understand the relationships among them have indicated that size of the shrimp and salinity of the rearing medium, respectively, had inverse and direct relationships with higher chances of WFS incidence and severity. Therefore, adaptations in the form of adopting pond carrying capacity-based stocking densities and increased pond water depth in the rearing system during weather changes might help in maintaining the optimum abiotic conditions which in turn minimize the disease incidence and its severity.