No Break Time For China

By David Kim

Portola High School

The Shrimp Virus has striked China’s seafood industry and is decimating shrimp farms in India as well.

The formal name of this virus is Decapod Iridescent Virus 1. Decapod is a family group of marine animals including shrimp, crab or lobster. Iridescent is referring to how color seems to change in different angles. As you can see in the words of the virus's name, the prior symptom of this disease is shrimp becoming more reddish. Then, their shell becomes soft and they sink to the bottom of the pond. 

This virus takes us back to 2014, when it first appeared. It wasn’t a serious problem back then, because damage was unnoticeable. However, at this point, it is affecting a quarter of the area under food production in China. 

It is a striking place called the Guangdong province in China, province responsible for the mass production of shrimp. Some are worrying that it may cause a similar situation as the African Swine Fever crisis, which killed 60% of pig herds last year in China. The reason this virus is being compared to a past devastating case is because it only takes two or three days after the first infection to kill all the shrimps in the pond. 

The main target shrimp of this virus is Pacific White Shrimp, which are called prawns in the U.K. Farmers all around Asia are staying alerted and anxious about this virus, especially those in India, as the country is big exporter of Pacific White Shrimp to Europe and the U.S. 

This virus is currently baffling scientists and biologists because there are rumors that it is spreaded from water and humans. Currently in mid-April they still have no clue how the virus spreads, the origin of the virus, and even how to prevent it. 

On top of COVID-19 threatening people, the food industry is also in emergency. According to Greenqueen, “A recent study found that fish today contains roughly 283 times more parasites than 40 years ago” and increasing demand of seafood is rising the amount of ghost web that are trashed in the ocean. These ghost webs causes a loss of biodiversity in the ocean which exacerbates scientists’ concerns of there being more trash in ocean than fish in 2050. China should deal with this problem wisely before it affects shrimps in other regions, and the world should take a better look at the polluted environment.