Effect of Dietary Essential Oils on Growth, Feed Utilization and Meat Yields of White Leg Shrimp L. Vannamei (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION The pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, also known as white leg shrimp, inhabits waters that range in salinity from 1 to 40 ppt (Bray et al., 1994). L. vannamei is the most commonly cultured shrimp in the western hemisphere and has been grown in inland saline waters ranging in salinity from 28.3 ppt (Smith and Lawrence, 1990) to 0.5 ppt (Samocha et al., 2001). White leg shrimp was first introduced into Vietnam between 1997-2000. Since then the production of white leg shrimp has increased rapidly, mainly in the central and northern provinces of Vietnam, under the strict control by the Ministry of Fisheries. In January 2008, the culture of white leg shrimp in the Mekong Delta region was approved for intensive pond systems in safe aquaculture zone areas approved by the provincial authorities (Tien and Griffiths, 2009).