The Hindu Business Line : MPEDA alert against infected shrimp seeds — Stocks with white spot virus brought from Bangladesh

THE Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has issued a "general alert" against buying and stocking of recent supplies of highly-infected black tiger shrimp seeds, allegedly imported from Bangladesh.

The MPEDA Deputy Director, Dr A.S. Upadhya, told Business Line that certain local agents were responsible for bringing in shrimp seeds from across the border recently with a high degree of viral infection at a very low price.

Dr Madhumita Mukherjee, Deputy Director of the brackish water section in the West Bengal Fisheries Department, said the State Government had taken up a multi-pronged measure to tackle the issue.

"We have requested the Customs Department (Union Finance Ministry) to introduce a checking and certification systems for seeds at the Kolkata airport, city and Haldia ports and check-posts on the land route. The State Government has a testing laboratory, which can conduct procareotic chain reaction (PCR) tests — crucial for detecting the dreaded white spot shrimp virus (WSSV) — and the customs on the basis of our certification should release or stop the imported seeds," she added.

The State Government has also decided to ask the known importers of seeds to get their consignments checked and certified. The State Fisheries Department has also adopted measures to stop use of the infected seeds for culture by the farmers in the three shrimp growing districts.

According to a preliminary MPDEA survey, a significant amount of seeds infected by white spot virus (WSV) have found their way into West Bengal over last five to six weeks. Against a going rate of around Rs 500 per 1000 seeds, the infected seeds were sold to fish farmers of North 24-Parganga district, adjoining the border, at a price between Rs 200 and 250 per 1000, the MPDEA sources said.

The MPDEA has 2000 registered fish farmers in the State.

The MPDEA's sub-regional centre at Kolkata had tested the samples of the so-called supplies, some of which might have been smuggled into the country, the sources maintain. It is interesting to note that the MPDEA has discovered that some of the infected seeds were hatchery products and some were wild ones (caught from rivers or hatched in ponds in an unscientific manner).

"The MPDEA has also launched an awareness programme own its own so that farmers do not fall prey to the unscrupulous agents," Dr Upadhya said.

The shrimp cultivation in the country was first affected by WSV in 1996. The WSV infection is incurable and causes a contagion resulting in a complete crop loss. "The West Bengal farms are particularly vulnerable because shrimp culture is run largely in an unorganised fashion and for seeds the State depends on supplies from outside or imports," Dr Upadhya observed.

The State consumes around 1,600 million number of seeds annually. West Bengal contributes around 30 per cent of the total shrimps export from the country.

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