Vannamei shrimp are cannibalistic.

So why is it not allowed to feed shrimp with shrimp head meal for certification purposes.

Sounds like a UK “madcow” clause. Does not make sense with emerging knowledge about marine shrimp.

Prawnmaster recalls two instances and trials carried out in the 1990s. One was our direct drier and the other was a press and steaming process to extract oils and flavanoids, etc. The essence…with no chemicals. We never used chemicals for our US and Japanese markets – that was only required when entering into the “new” European headson markets…

Many in the shrimp industry were running with the theory was that if you fed shrimp shrimp that you would spread disease. This permeated through the industry. It was an important thought that passed on to health professionals and feed companies…but was not proven with shrimp meal…freshly dead shrimp yes – but they were already a pond problem.

Prior to mid 1990s shrimp head/shell meal was used to support fish meal.

In the mid 1990s I setup a pump system for heads and shells from our dehead room direct to our automated drier in the Marine Harvest (Enaca) shrimp processing and packing facility. All product wet weighed and final shrimp meal output duly noted and passed on to Banaca – the Marine Harvest shrimp feed pellet mill.

Recent evidence from shrimp studies in deep ocean vents show that they undergo a synergistic living with bacteria and themselves – being omniverous and cannibalistic – a % sacrifice themselves for the greater good – they have been around longer than humans 🤔👍🦐

This behaviour we note in shrimp growout. A natural daily mortality. It’s in their genes.

With humankind being basically a land based creature the domestication of shrimp and insights into the species is gaining ground.

This new farmed protein has the opportunity to continue a responsible growth in service of humankind…