author(s)
Tariqul Islam, Md. Istiaque Hossain, MM Mahbub Alam, Sarker Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil, Md. Moshiur Rahman and Md. Abdullah-Al-Mamun

abstract
Shrimp farming is one of the fastest rising economic activity in coastal parts of the Asia-Pacific regions including Bangladesh. The coastal region, especially the south-western part of Bangladesh including Khulna, Bagherhat and Satkhira is one of the most promising areas for shrimp and prawn farming. Mainly Penaeus monodon and Macrobrachium rosenbergii are cultured in South-western part of Bangladesh. The study was conducted to know the status of Shrimp diseases and their management practices. The data were collected from sixty farms in three sites i.e. Shyamnagar, Buri Goalini, Munshiganj covering mainly shrimp and prawn farming area at Satkhira district. Data were collected through questionnaire interview, key informant interview; personal contact and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) i.e. focus group discussion (FGD) with local people, farm owners, shrimp and prawn farmers. A number of diseases were reported in the study area by the farmers i.e. White Spot Syndrome, Yellow Head Disease, Vibriosis, Black Gill Disease and Soft Shell Disease. WSS was the most widespread problems for shrimp species in the study area. A variety of aqua drugs, chemicals, antibiotics and disinfectants were used during pre-stocking, post-stocking and disease management. During pre-stocking management farmers used lime (100%) followed by fertilizer (90%), hunter (70%) and zeo-prime (30%). During culture period and disease management farmers used lime (92%), fertilizer (83%), salt (80%), formalin (50%), oxy-tetra-vet (42%), aquakleen (27%) and potasium per manganet (15%). In the study area, the average production of shrimp 73 No/dec. (3 kg/dec), prawn 32 No/dec. (3.5kg/dec). Lack of technical knowledge about culture, quality Post Larvae of shrimp and prawn, awareness about the use of chemicals, diagnosis of diseases, and improper stocking density and disease problems were the main problems in shrimp and prawn culture in the study area. Farmers demanded training on different aspects of shrimp culture and management practices for higher production. According to the respondents, low-cost laboratory facilities and knowledge sharing and learning (KSL) center could be developed at community level with the coordination of government extension unit, development organization, local service providers and farmers which could be enriched with different information including descriptions of disease symptoms, means of diagnosis and how to prevent or treat diseases etc. The information of the study will be helpful for successful management of disease occurred in shrimp farms of Bangladesh.