"The outbreak of early mortality syndrome (EMS), also known as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome (AHNS), in Asian shrimp has led to questions about whether trade in certain products represents a bio security risk to producers in the Western hemisphere," said Steven Hedlund, communications manager at Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).
"While there is an urgent need to prevent EMS from spreading, it would be counterproductive to block trade in items that present low risk."
"To clarify this issue, GAA turned to Donald Lightner, a leading shrimp pathologist who led a responsible aquaculture foundation/World Bank mission on EMS to Vietnam last July and whose laboratory in Ariz., the United States, recently confirmed that EMS is caused by a pathogen."
"Lightner clarified that his recommendations at a recent aquaculture meeting in Ecuador were somewhat exaggerated in subsequent reports. According to Lightner, ‘I did recommend that no live shrimp from Southeast Asian countries be imported for any purpose to any site in Latin America until there is a suitable test (e.g. PCR) to distinguish those that carry EMS from those that do not. For frozen products, all I can say is that my lab tried unsuccessfully for one year to induce EMS, results that suggest that the agent of EMS does not survive freezing and thawing. We used live and/or fresh material in Vietnam to successfully transmit the disease.’”
Regarding feeds, Lightner said, "Artemia, feeds and feed ingredients are at the bottom of the list of risks as these products pose virtually no risk to the importing country."