Economic Viability of Rehabilitation of Disease-Prone Prawn-Shrimp Farm
with the use of BIOSEA

By Chia Boon Tat, Liaw Kok Eng and Angelito O. Abaoag*

Bionovar International
1 Fifth Avenue #04-09
Guthrie House
Singapore 268802
Tel: +65 64670182   Fax: +65 64673082
Email: enquiries@bionovar.com
Website: www.bionovar.com

Sitiawan, Perak is one of the area in Malaysia affected by the devastating disease of tiger prawn. The once 1,000 hectare of ponds dedicated to tiger prawn culture was reduced to less than 100 and are mostly dedicated to white shrimp culture. Some ponds have cultures of tiger prawn but at very high risk. Bionovar were able to develop a system to treat the pond environment, maintaining good water quality and boost prawn/shrimp resistance to disease. This system enables previously abandoned farms to be rehabilitated.

BioSEA application provide farmers to seed their farms at the same density as their previous culture, while improving survivability (40% to 85% for tiger prawn and 50 to 90% for white shrimp), increasing average body weight (from 25 to 35g for tiger prawn and 15 to 20g for white shrimp) and increasing the number of cropping per year (1.5 to 2.5).

• 5-pond testbed for developing technologies and solutions using
  Bionovar’s System for Biological Sustainable Enhanced Aquaculture

• Located in Sitiawan, Perak, Malaysia

• Farm was previously suffering from low yields because of disease outbreaks

• Complete sustainable solution comprising of products and grow-out system

• Microbial formulations to treat and maintain water column

• Microbial formulations to bio-remediate polluted pond environment

• Probiotics for effective nutrient and feed management resulting in significantly
  improved feed conversion ratio

• Biological processes which are completely chemical-free

• Ultra-high stocking density with no need of special infrastructure

  • High survivability rates

  • Uniform and accelerated growth

• High yields are achieved with excellent meat quality

• Stimulate resistance to all common diseases including white spot syndrome virus

• Solution effective for rehabilitating and reviving farms severely affected by
  low yields and diseases

Table 1. Economic study on the effect of BioSEA application for
tiger prawn (P. monodon) and white shrimp (L. vannamei) culture
in Sitiawan, Perak, Malaysia (at equal density)
 

Sustainability of the system is achieved through:

• Higher density;

• Uniformity of size;

• Minimization of mortality;

• Reduction of disease risk;

• Reduction of environmental risk;

• Improved Feed Conversion Ratio;

• Faster cropping turn-over.