Increased robustness of postlarvae and juveniles from non-ablated Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, broodstock post-challenged with pathogenic isolates of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VpAHPND) and white spot disease (WSD)

The maturation and reproduction of Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei, through the practice of unilateral eyestalk ablation though common is an animal welfare concern. This study assessed the resilience of offspring from non-ablated P. vannamei when challenged with an isolate of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) causing acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (VpAHPND), and with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). VpAHPND and WSSV challenges were conducted using PL and juveniles under controlled conditions, with both trials using four groups (i.e. shrimp from either ablated or non-ablated females and then either challenged with the pathogen or not challenged). For the VpAHPND challenge, ten replicate 20 L tanks (five replicates for each population) each containing 100 PL 17 (average weight 14 mg) in 15 ppt, 29.05 ± 0.13 °C water were challenged with 2 mL of 2.0 × 108 CFU mL−1 culture of V. parahaemolyticus. A further ten replicate tanks (five per population) served as the corresponding non-challenged controls. The shrimp mortalities were assessed every 3 h over the following 96 h. For the WSSV challenge, individual 1.4 g (average weight) shrimp (50 individuals per population) were housed in 1 L tanks and fed 0.1 g WSSV infected tissue (av. 2.02 × 109 WSSV). A further 50 shrimp per population served as non-challenged controls. The shrimp were maintained at 15 ppt, 26.3 ± 0.71 °C water and assessed every 3 h post-infection over the subsequent 168 h and mortalities at each time point noted. Postlarvae from non-ablated females had significantly (p = 2.4E-23) better survival (70.4%) than those from ablated females (38.8%) at 96 h post-challenge with VpAHPND. Both challenged populations had significantly (p ≤1.3E-36) lower survival than the control groups. The survival of the juveniles from non-ablated females (62%) at 168 h post-infection with WSSV was not significantly higher than that of the juveniles from ablated female (48%) although the difference was significantly different at 65 to 75 h. Both challenged populations also had significantly (p ≤1.0E-5) lower survival rates than the control groups. The study demonstrates that postlarvae and juveniles from non-ablated females are more resilient to typical pathogens (VpAHPND and WSSV) and may show higher survival rates during a disease outbreak