Almost all shrimp farmers in Andhra Pradesh are urging the Central government to continue restrictions on importing specific pathogen-free (SPF) shrimp broodstock from Southeast Asian countries. They worry India lacks the proper screening tools to detect serious shrimp diseases early. Currently, SPF broodstock comes mainly from Hawaii, USA, and sometimes from Ecuador and Madagascar. Imported broodstock is strictly checked at the Aquatic Quarantine Facility (AQF) in Chennai to rule out dangerous pathogens. Since 2013, India banned broodstock imports from Southeast Asia, including Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Malaysia, after outbreaks of deadly shrimp diseases like early mortality syndrome (EMS) and acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome (AHPNS). But the Centre plans to review this ban, causing concern among Andhra Pradesh shrimp farmers. D. Gopinadh, president of the Prakasam District Prawn Farmers Association, said, "The existing restriction on shrimp imports from EMS-affected countries had saved Indian farmers. Through the members of Prawn Farmers Federation of India (PFFI), we came to know that the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (FAHD) would be allowing the imports from South East Asia." He has written to the FAHD Minister to keep the import ban intact to protect local shrimp farming. He added, "Indian testing systems can check only known diseases. Nobody can predict new diseases. By the time a test is developed, the farmers would suffer the losses. We have already seen such damage in case of the EHP (Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei)." Andhra Pradesh produces over 70% of India's shrimp. Thousands of farmers and many others involved in the shrimp supply chain depend on this business. "The entire economy of the State would get impacted if any new disease enters the country," Mr. Gopinadh stressed. However, B. Madhusudana Rao, principal scientist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research–Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR-CIFT), Visakhapatnam, dismissed these fears. He said AQF Chennai is fully equipped to detect all diseases. The ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) also tests the broodstock. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Joint Director of Fisheries in Prakasam district, said, "It is only a myth that there is no proper screening equipment in India. Besides the State Fisheries department, nine Central government organizations monitor the shrimp ecosystem."