Taura syndrome virus (TSV), whitespot syndrome virus, yellow head virus, necrotizing hepatopancreatitis, early mortality syndrome (EMS). The history of shrimp farming reads like a hypochondriac’s Christmas list.

As far as I can calculate, no one period of even six months has gone by in the entire history of commercial shrimp farming without at least one devastating disease rearing its head.

In the 1990s TSV and whitespot launched an almost simultaneous attack on vannamei farms on opposite sides of the planet -- TSV cropping up in Ecuador and whitespot in China.