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Virus attacks shrimp farms in Lampung

Bandarlampung, Ekuatorial – The largest shrimp farm in Southeast Asia, Bumi Dipasena, is being threatened by white feces disease due to increase demands, said an official, on Friday (6/3), in Bandarlampung.

After reports on many shrimp deaths, Lampung marine and fisheries agency conducted a research and found that South Lampung, East Lampung, and Dipasena were attacked by white feces disease.

Candra Murni, head of Lampung marine and fisheries agency, said that the virus spread very fast and usually attacked 20 or 30 days shrimps, post stocking the seed.

“Signs of shrimps [attacked by white feces disease] are lose appetite in the afternoon. After a while, white feces started to show in the pond and while drying the pond, shrimps were dead,” said Murni. “This condition occur because farmers mix clean water and dirty water. The input and output water come from one canal.”

Meanwhile, Slamet Subiakto, director general of ministry of marine and fisheries, said that the virus was also triggered by lack of land stocking amid high demands.

“Farmers do know how to handle this [virus] but because they are being pressured by high demands, they did not rehabilitate their ponds,” said Subiakto adding that it would take three months in a year to halt activities before stocking seed again.

“So, for instance, twice harvesting shrimps then you’ll need to harvest different fish. You can not stocking shrimps all the time,” he said. “Bottom line is that we need to return to sustainable farming.”

Murni said that the virus can be anticipated using tandon or clean water containers. “To reduce the disease to spread, they have to apply system to separate clean water from dirty water,” he said adding that ten ponds must prepare at least three tandons.

However, Donal, a fish farmer of Dipasena, opted to reduce stocking seeds as shrimp production declining for the last four months.

“We usually spread 100,000 seeds but 20,000 to 30,000 seeds are the limit,” he said adding weather was the cause for the virus in their ponds. Eni Muslihah

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