Why on-field diagnostics matter for shrimp farming

The real cost of waiting

For a shrimp farmer, the gap between "something looks wrong in the pond" and "we know what it is" is rarely measured in hours, it's measured in days. Samples have to be collected, packed, transported to a lab, queued, processed, and the results relayed back. By the time an answer arrives, White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) or EHP infection may have already spread through the pond.

ICAR-CIBA, India's nodal agency for shrimp aquaculture, has described this lag as one of the central operational risks in commercial shrimp farming, and one of the clearest opportunities for point-of-care molecular tools to change outcomes.

The economics of early detection

A single WSSV outbreak can wipe out an entire pond's harvest. Feed companies working directly with farmers report that the value of testing isn't just diagnostic accuracy, it's speed combined with accessibility in remote locations where lab infrastructure doesn't reach.

"This solution is of utmost necessity to our farmers, for lab-based and farm-based surveillance, especially in remote locations.", CEO, Shrimp Feed Company

When a 30-minute on-field test replaces a multi-day lab turnaround, farmers can isolate affected ponds, adjust water exchange, or make harvest decisions before a localized infection becomes a total loss.

What an on-field workflow looks like

D-NOME's Shrimp Saathi DX Kits, combined with the D-SWIFT extraction device, follow a simple three-step process designed to run beside the pond, not in a lab:

• 5-minute extraction from gill, pleopod or hepatopancreas tissue using D-SWIFT, no centrifuge, no heat block
• Isothermal amplification at ambient temperature via D-ISO NAAT circuitry
• Real-time PCR detection for WSSV, EHP and Vibrio.P in roughly 30 minutes

The takeaway for farmers

On-field diagnostics won't eliminate disease risk in aquaculture, but they fundamentally change the decision window. Farmers, hatcheries and consultants no longer have to choose between waiting for lab confirmation and acting on guesswork. That shift, validated through ICAR-CIBA's field trials, is what's driving adoption of point-of-care molecular testing across Indian shrimp aquaculture.