BFAR destroys infected white shrimps

About 1,100 pieces of imported white shrimps known as "Peneaus vannamei," costing $35 each, will be "destroyed" today, following a recommendation by the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC) to Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Malcolm Sarmiento. The shrimps, which were imported from Hawaii and cultured at the BFAR office, were found infected with a disease. Several groups from the media and the SEAFDEC were invited to witness the destruction of the shrimps. But, Westly Rosario, the BFAR center chief here, belied reports that that the disease found in these breeders was the deadly Taura syndrome virus, a kind of prawn disease initially found among shrimps in the Ecuador river in 1992.