Is it true that shrimp are being vaccinated - or are soon to be vaccinated - with mRNA vaccines? No, that's not true: Vaccines administered to shrimp are of a different kind, such as those used to prevent epidemics of white spot disease (WSD) among crustaceans and fish. The claim is made without evidence to support the statement that mRNA are being prepared for shrimp.
The claim appeared in a video published on TikTok (archived here) on September 15, 2023. The video contains a screenshot of an article titled "mRNA vaccines now headed for shrimp" (archived here). The text of the article is absent from the video, which only states that this information comes from Dr. Joseph Mercola, a renowned anti-vaxxer who has spread misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19 in the past. Lead Stories has fact-checked several claims by Dr. Mercola.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Oct 24 01:23:02 2023 UTC)
Vaccines administered to shrimp do not contain mRNA: mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine that was in development during the '60s and only widely used to fight COVID-19, making it the first of its kind to be approved and mass-produced to the public.
Vaccines administered to shrimp can, though, contain RNAi, RNA Interference, used specifically to silence or deactivate genes, which has different pathways compared to mRNA. While mRNA mainly focuses on the regulation of endogenous protein-coding gene expression, RNAi is a form of innate immunity targeting viruses and mobile elements. RNAi also neutralizes mRNA molecules: The two are, then, two different approaches.
Vaccines have been used on shrimp in Japan: The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization released a report in 2010 on the vaccine approach against the white spot disease, a highly contagious viral infection that affects commercially cultivated marine shrimp species, concluding that vaccines are safe for the well-being of shrimp and are harmless for human consumption. TeOra, a Singaporean startup, has also done encouraging research on edible shrimp vaccines to prevent the spread of white spot disease on shrimp and fish, winning funding from Temasek, a government-owned investment company.
