This report is the proceedings of a workshop held under the FAO technical cooperation project Emergency assistance to control the spread of an unknown disease affecting shrimps held in Hanoi, Viet Nam from 25 to 27 June 2013. The workshop reviewed recent investigations into the cause of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome, believed to related to a strain of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and drew a number of recommendations on specific and generic actions and measures for reducing the risk of AHPND.

A new FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report, Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) or Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Syndrome (AHPNS) of Cultured Shrimp, focuses on this emerging disease that has devastated the shrimp industry of China, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam over the last three years.

A special Workshop on Aquaculture Certification was held on 26 June in conjunction with the VIETFISH trade show, which ran from 25-27 June in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The workshop was organised by the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, with contributions from partners Ghent University, Wageningen University, Can Tho University and NACA. Approximately 60 people attended including farmers, researchers, certification agencies, and regional and international organisations.

Artisanal shrimp aquaculture is in a disease-induced crisis of lost production, into which are falling farms, gene pools adapted to farms, and small-hold farming as a way of life. Rising levels of inbreeding and an exceptionally strong, positive relationship between inbreeding and disease which is described here. The root cause is social: a nexus of human behavior in which breeders protect their intellectual property by generating inbreeding and farmers suffer the consequences.

The Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India has approved a national project on aquatic animal disease surveillance for five years and funding of INR 320 million (about US$ 6 million) has been allocated through the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB). A national consultation on aquatic animal disease surveillance held last April 2012, attended by NACA, made a strong recommendation for the need for a national program on surveillance.