Shrimp farming industry in Mexico:
Sinaloa is one of the Mexican states with the highest production of farmed shrimp. The appearance of the white spot (WSSV ) infection in Mexico in 1999 had a significant economic impact due to the high mortality rate. During the last decade different strategies have been implemented for production and health management by the Aquaculture Health Committees that have reduced the economic impact, however there are still factors that are contributing to the occurrence of WSSV outbreaks, which highlights the need to conduct further investigations to establish more effective control programs. Moreover, in 2013 it has been introduced a new syndrome, early mortality syndrome (EMS), whose etiology is a specific p strain of Vibrio parahaemolyticus which has been devastating the shrimp productions and, as consequence, production have reach levels of 1999 . The Committee on Aquaculture Health of Sinaloa ( CESASIN ) has detailed production and health data from the last 8 years. We propose here to conduct an intensive epidemiological analysis of this data to identify spatiotemporal patterns of disease presentation and to identify potential risk factors for diseases affecting farmed shrimp in Mexico. We will use spatial analysis and geostatistical models for such purpose.
