Selective Breeding and Development of Disease Resistant Broodstock of BlackTiger Shrimp Penaeus monodon Fabricius, 1798

The Indian tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon is the principal species being cultured. Of late hatchery sector is being dependent on wild gravid females due to non response of broodstock to eyestalk ablation. High cost of gravid females compelling the grow-out sector to stock pathogen carrier seeds. Hence domestication of tiger shrimp is essential to produce Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) broodstock / Disease Resistant (DR) broodstock. Merits and demerits of SPF versus DR broodstock are presented. Development of SPF broodstock involves stringent management of environment to arrest the entry of pathogens and more than one economic trait can be selected. Whereas in development of DR broodstockanimals are challenged with the pathogen and a selection of other economic traits are less possible. Resistance in shrimp exists at the species level as well as individual level. Experiment on domestication of P. monodon in which programme was advanced up to F3 generation has revealed the existence of resistance for WSSV at the individual level. Selective breeding programme for development of D R broodstock involves development of disease free base population, forming them into families, production of F1 generation family wise through inbreeding, challenging each family with WSSV at 3-5 g size and rearing survived individuals up to 100 g size, production of F2 generation by random inter crossing between families, advancing the programme up to F5 generation. Development of DR broodstock is imperative to ensure sustainable shrimp production