Opportunities for training in shrimp diseases

Opportunities for formal training in shrimp diseases were not available 30 years ago. This was because the shrimp farming industry was in its infancy with few significant disease issues and even fewer shrimp disease specialists investigating the causes of production losses. In 2006, more than two million metric tons of the marine penaeid shrimp were farmed, accounting for more than half of the world's supply. With most of the world's shrimp fisheries at maximum sustainable yields, the ratio of farmed to fished shrimp appears likely to continue to increase. The remarkable growth of sustainable shrimp farming was made possible through the development of methods to diagnose and manage disease in the world's shrimp farms. This occurred as the result of the development of training opportunities in shrimp disease diagnosis and control methods and the application of that knowledge, by an ever increasing number of shrimp diseases specialists, to disease management at shrimp farms. The first type of formal training to become generally available to the industry was in the form of special short courses and workshops. The first of these, which was open to international participants, was given at the University of Arizona in 1989. Since that first course several dozen more special short courses and workshops on shrimp diseases have been given by the University of Arizona. Dozens more special courses and workshops on shrimp diseases have been given by other groups, including other universities, industry cooperatives, governments and international aid agencies, in a wide range of countries (and languages) where shrimp farming constitutes an important industry. In parallel, graduate study programs leading to post graduate degrees, with shrimp disease as the research topic, have developed while formal courses in shrimp diseases have not become widely available in veterinary or fisheries college curricula in the USA and Europe, such courses are appearing in university programs located in some of the shrimp farming countries of SE Asia. The trend towards more formal training programs in shrimp diseases and disease management is likely to continue as the industry continues to mature and become increasingly sustainable.