In 1983, a small island started from a large farmer

Chen Dongqing was quite troubled by the questions, because the shrimp disease came too suddenly and even they didn't know the cause of the shrimp death.

It was as if these shrimps had made an appointment and burst out at the same time during this period.

Chen Dongqing pushed up his glasses and shouted at the shrimp farmers who surrounded his office: "Please don't worry, we are already working hard to find the cause."

But the shrimp farmers were all anxious and said, "Chief Chen, we have been hearing this for more than a week. We have invested a lot of money in shrimp farming. You have to help us think of a solution."

A shrimp farmer said anxiously: "A lot of shrimps die every day. If this continues, I will lose all my money."

Chen Dongqing was also very angry. Helping was a favor, and not helping was his duty. Breeding was inherently risky, and he was just a researcher, so he could just close the door and ignore them.

But I didn't expect that someone would go so far as to shout, "You gave us the shrimp fry, so you must be responsible to the end."

Unexpectedly, someone followed suit and said, "That's right, the shrimp seedlings were given by the research institute, so we must be responsible to the end."

After hearing this, Chen Dongqing was really angry, and he slammed the table and cursed:

"Have we collected the money for the shrimp seedlings? When we gave you the shrimp seedlings, didn't we tell you that we are only responsible for providing the shrimp seedlings and cannot guarantee their quality?"

The scene was silent for a while, but someone still said, "Why are our deaths so serious, but the Minlong Shrimp Farm seems to be fine?"

Chen Dongqing gritted his teeth and said, "I'm already worried. Nothing happened yet, but three shrimp ponds have been affected. This time it's a shrimp epidemic, and everyone has been infected. Besides, your management can't compare with Minlong."

Some shrimp farmers couldn't stand it and sighed, "Please don't curse after getting a bargain. You guys who get free seedlings from the research institute are generally better than those of us who collect them from the wild."

"Some of us are about to die, half the shrimp in the pond are dead."

Fortunately, there are still sensible people, otherwise Chen Dongqing would really be in a headache. This reminds him that he was also full of vigor and vitality in the past.

As soon as the summer kelp seedlings were developed, the villagers were immediately asked to plant them. As a result, they did not dare to return to the village for two years.

Fortunately, Li Duoyu gave away these shrimp seedlings, otherwise he would not have made much money and would have ended up in trouble.

This guy is still steady, but Chen Dongqing has an inexplicable feeling that Li Duoyu may have known something a long time ago.

He always felt that every step he took was to avoid risks as much as possible. Previously, he always felt that cultivating excellent broodstock was not so necessary.

After all, even if it is ordinary shrimp fry, it will not be much worse than his shrimp fry when raised. At most, it will be a little smaller in size, and the economic benefits are still similar.

But now looking back, it really is a long-term vision, especially the laboratory that was invested at a huge cost, which was used just for this moment.

The shrimp farmers at the County Fisheries Research Institute were unable to obtain any useful information and eventually left.

Director Zhang Qingyun frowned. This time the shrimp disease was not localized, but rather widespread.

This shrimp disease has appeared in many places, not just Rongcheng. When Zhang Qingyun saw Chen Dongqing coming, he couldn't help asking:

"Holly, what's going on with this shrimp disease?"

Chen Dongqing shook his head.

"I have no idea at all. It is most likely caused by a new virus. We are currently purifying the virus."

"Is this the purification job that we do?" Zhang Qingyun had just come from the institute's laboratory and found that no one was doing this.

Chen Dongqing smiled awkwardly:

"Well, it seems that the equipment in our institute has not been replaced for a long time. Now this work is being carried out at Minlong. My senior brother is an expert in shrimp farming. We can only see if he has a solution."

Zhang Qingyun heard it and rolled his eyes at him. "I can't be the only one working on this equipment problem. You have to think of a solution too. Our seedling base has been separated, but we can't separate the laboratory as well."

"Director, this is all for our breeding industry. It's not like I haven't applied before, but the process is too long."

Zhang Qingyun rolled his eyes and said, "Can you bend your arm back a little bit? When I retire, who do you think will take this position?"

Chen Dongqing smiled and said, "How dare I think so much? You can be the boss for another five or six years, absolutely no problem."

Zhang Qingyun said: "If there are any research results on shrimp diseases this time, we will try our best to get the authorship from Duoyu."

"Of course, he doesn't want his name signed."

"Also, if there is a way, we should quickly control the shrimp disease. If it continues like this, it will probably hit the entire shrimp farming industry."

"Okay, we will work hard."

But in fact, Chen Dongqing knew very well that even if there was a solution, it was too late.

There is a saying by Li Duoyu which is really true, the most important thing in aquaculture is not how to cure the disease, but how to prevent it.

The density of aquaculture is relatively high. Once this situation occurs, it means that the loss has already begun, it is just a matter of how much.

Li Duoyu has also been working at the shrimp farm these days. This time, even he was not spared from the shrimp plague. His brother-in-law Zhang Mingsheng was fishing in a shrimp pond labeled A17 with a scoop net.

Not long after, a lot of dead shrimps were fished out. Logically speaking, these shrimps had been raised for more than three months.

Logically speaking, it should be about the size of 25 shrimps (25 per pound).

But the dead shrimps were obviously smaller in size, and it felt like there were less than 30 of them.

There were obvious white spots on the shrimp head, and the entire stomach was empty, as if it had not eaten.

The entire shrimp head and shrimp shell feel very soft. With just a pinch, the shrimp head will separate from the shrimp tail.

Brother-in-law Zhang Mingsheng said with a bitter face: "Why are there more deaths today? Duoyu, do you know what the reason is?"

Li Duoyu shook his head. In fact, when he first saw the dead shrimps, he already knew what the disease was.

Those who are engaged in breeding generally call this disease vitiligo, and once this disease occurs, it is just like human influenza and it is impossible to eliminate it.

What worries shrimp farmers the most is that there is no specific medicine for this disease. Once the infection is serious, they can only give up and consider themselves unlucky. In severe cases, they can only drain the pond, that is, dispose of all the shrimps.

It can be said that few farmers are willing to drain the ponds and dispose of shrimps of this size.

But people are all profit-seeking. Who would be willing to see the money they worked hard for half a year go down the drain? Naturally, the more money they can get back, the better.

In his previous life, whenever the price of prawns dropped sharply, he would not buy shrimps, especially those with soft shells, which were 100% certain to be infected with viruses.

In the shrimp farm's laboratory, Teacher Lei and two other teachers from the College of Agriculture were all doing pathological analysis on the dead shrimp.

On hand, they not only had dead shrimps from the Minlong Shrimp Farm, but also dead shrimp samples from neighboring provinces.

They have not had a break for several days and are testing the dead shrimp for various viruses.

Teacher Lin Peng said: "There is nuclear proliferation in the hepatopancreas."

"Hepatopancreatic leukoplakia"

"For bacteria, no typical pathogens were isolated."

Lei Youshan frowned, looking exhausted. He had just decided to study prawns carefully, but unexpectedly, he encountered shrimp plague.

This was indeed a big challenge for him. At this time, Chen Dongqing also returned to the laboratory and brought back some useful information.

"I have collected some information in the past two days. The disease started to break out in Ludao and has also spread to neighboring provinces. A shrimp farmer in Ludao said that the shrimp he raised often showed symptoms of stealing and dying last year."

After hearing this, Lei Youshan said, "So, it is possible that it was infected by an external virus. Let's study it in another direction."

Chen Dongqing nodded: "I also think this is more reasonable. This virus is very likely to have existed last year and infected the shrimp fry, otherwise it would not have been possible to have such a large-scale outbreak this year."

Originally, Chen Dongqing wanted to experiment with high-density breeding, but after encountering this strange virus, he directly stopped the project.

During this period when shrimp diseases were rampant, the entire shrimp farming industry was in a gloomy situation.

Because many shrimp farmers were afraid, they all shipped their shrimps in advance, causing the price of shrimps to plummet. The original retail price of shrimps was as high as five yuan, but now it has dropped to three yuan, and the shrimp farmers' selling price is even lower, some selling at one and a half yuan.

The fishermen who used to make money by catching shrimps have been complaining in recent days. With these shrimp farmers doing this, they can't make any money.

The purchase price of prawns has directly reached two yuan, and the prices of other sword shrimps, smooth shrimps, etc. are even lower.

The news of the shrimp disease gradually spread among the people, even causing panic in the entire seafood market, causing other seafood products to drop in price as well.

In short, the entire aquatic product industry is in mourning, and no one who sells aquatic products in Rongcheng Farmers’ Trade Center is happy.

The fishermen on Dandan Island have been very troubled these days. The Zhao brothers started quarreling with the fishmonger Lao Mi again.

"Yesterday this pomfret was 2 cents, how come it's only 1 cent today? Also, the price of rice fish has always been 50 cents this year, how come it's only 30 cents now?"

Other fishermen followed suit and said, "Lao Mi, you should be conscientious in doing business. You can't do whatever you want just because there are few fish on the island."

Old Man Mi was also helpless: "If you think I'm lying to you, go to Rongcheng and see for yourself how much the price of seafood has dropped recently. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't want to buy your fish. If I did, I wouldn't even be able to earn back my wages."

These days, the Fisheries Bureau has been holding meetings every day and even invited many aquaculture experts to study the shrimp plague together.

But after a week or two of research, we still couldn't find the source of the disease, and we were helpless in dealing with this shrimp plague.

What we know now is that once the shrimp are infected by the unknown virus, they will lose the ability to eat.

The fish first float to the surface, then slowly sink to the bottom and die. The shrimps also have the habit of eating their own kind.

If you don't pay attention, the dead shrimp will soon be eaten by their own kind, thus spreading the disease.

Once this disease starts, if the farmer does not pay attention, all the shrimps in the pond may die without the farmer knowing.

These experts also gave this disease a very appropriate name, called "stealing death disease."

After the meeting, these experts were at a loss as to what to do about the disease. Thinking of the big order Li Duoyu had, Wu Yuping called the Qixingwan Shrimp Farm and said anxiously:

"I'm Wu Yuping from the Fisheries Bureau. Is Li Duoyu here?"

The operator Chen Xiaoyan replied: "Hello, Director Wu, Director Li is at the shrimp pond. Why don't you wait a moment and I will call him right away."

Wu Yuping frowned and said, "Don't worry, let him do his work first. When he is free, call me back."

"Understood, Chief Wu."

Under the influence of the shrimp plague, Zhang Mingsheng fished out two to three hundred kilograms of dead shrimp from the shrimp pond every day.

Everyone was getting extremely anxious, but Li Duoyu didn't seem to be in any pain at all. He continued to eat and sleep as usual every day.

No one dared to ask.

Although Zhou Xiaoying knew about this, at this critical juncture, she chose not to make trouble and tried her best to do the housework and take good care of the children.

However, Li Duoyu is really not in a hurry, because he has more than 20 shrimp ponds, and only five of them have problems at present, covering about 100 acres.

There are still 400 acres of shrimp ponds left that have not been affected by this shrimp disease, which is also related to his breeding model.

The water in each shrimp pond of Li Duoyu is not interconnected. Even if one of the ponds is infected, the virus will not easily spread to the neighboring pond.

For farmers, this shrimp plague is absolutely a disaster, but for Li Duoyu who wants to produce [specific pathogen-free broodstock], it is an opportunity and a large-scale experiment.

The father and mother of the shrimp fry farmed by Li Duoyu are originally large and relatively strong broodstock, so their resistance is naturally better than that of the shrimps randomly caught in the wild.

Even though the shrimps were infected with shrimp plague, Li Duoyu had no plan to drain the pond and dispose of all the shrimps. He only needed to catch the dead shrimps in time.

Because the shrimps he raises have relatively good immunity, not all of them will die when they encounter this disease.

At least half of the shrimp will survive, and those that survive are very likely to gain immunity to the virus.

If this type of shrimp is used as broodstock for breeding the second generation, it is very likely that shrimp seedlings that are immune to the virus will be obtained.

In the past, shrimp seedlings like this that were immune to viruses were generally called highly resistant broodstock.

In other words, it may not necessarily grow very fast and large, but it has the ability to withstand viruses. In other words, it is hardy and easy to grow.

But currently, Li Duoyu’s shrimp seedling plan is still in the first step, and even he himself cannot guarantee it.

Will the surviving live shrimps in the shrimp pond be infected again? As for many things, Li Duoyu can only leave it to Lei Youshan and others.

Almost in the third week after the shrimp plague appeared, Lei Youshan and his team finally isolated the culprit that caused the shrimp plague.

They found that the nucleocapsid of this virus was rod-shaped, so they were too lazy to give it a name and simply called it shrimp baculovirus.

But even though they knew about the virus, Lei Youshan, Chen Dongqing and others found that there seemed to be no way to deal with it.

Viruses are very easy to eliminate. When the water temperature reaches above 30 degrees, the virus will lose its activity. When the acidity reaches below 5 or the alkalinity reaches above 12, the virus can be killed directly.

However, all methods that can kill the virus will also kill the shrimps, which leaves them with no solution.

By now, Lei Youshan finally understood how advanced Li Duoyu's ideas were, especially the breeding direction of "broodstock without special pathogens" he talked about, which was simply tailor-made for this shrimp plague.

Since we can’t get the virus, then forget it. It would be better to directly cultivate some shrimp varieties that are immune to the disease.

During this period, Ludao Haixin Group was also holding a shareholders' meeting, and all the shareholders looked very happy.

"If you don't have the diamond drill, don't be lazy about porcelain work. This time, Li Duoyu should be finished with the shrimp plague."

"He also gave away so many broodstock. If the shrimp farmers suffer heavy losses later, they will definitely find trouble with him."

"Let them refuse to buy our shrimp fry and go for Li Duoyu's. Free things are often the most expensive."

"Fortunately, we got these shrimp fry from overseas provinces, so we managed to escape the disaster."

"It's all thanks to Mr. Du's ability. If it weren't for him, we might have followed in Mr. Zhang's footsteps."

But when the shareholders' meeting was halfway through, the person in charge of Haixin Shrimp Farm suddenly came to the meeting room and said a few words to Sun Xiangdong with an anxious look on his face.

Sun Xiangdong's face turned ugly in an instant, and he directly cancelled the monthly shareholders' meeting.

"Let's stop here for today. I have some urgent business to attend to."