The giant river prawn,Macrobrachium rosenbergii, is a major focus of aquaculture in tropical and sub‐tropical regions around the globe. Over the last 30 years, culture ofM.rosenbergiihas increased exponentially as demand has risen both for domestic consumption and for international export trade. As with many aquaculture species increases in production have been accompanied by the emergence of diseases affecting yield, profit and trading potential. Disease‐causing agents include pathogens infecting other crustaceans, such asDecapod Iridescent Virus(DIV1), as well as pathogens only known fromM.rosenbergiisuch as White Tail Disease caused by Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV) and extra small virus (XSV). Here, we review the pathogenic agents associated with the culture ofM.rosenbergiisince commercial culture began in earnest during the 1970s. Particular emphasis is given to pathogens first identified in other aquaculture host species, but which have subsequently been shown to infect and cause disease inM.rosenbergii. As polyculture ofM.rosenbergiiwith other aquaculture species is common practice, including culture with other decapods, crabs and fish, increased pathogen transfer among these farmed species may occur asM.rosenbergiiaquaculture increases in the future.

A novel method, BBD-SSPD is proposed by the combination of Box-Behnken Design (BBD) and Split-Split Plot Design (SSPD) which would ensure minimum number of experimental runs, leading to economical utilization in multi- factorial experiments. The brine shrimp Artemia was tested to study the combined effects of photoperiod, temperature and salinity, each with three levels, on the hatching percentage and hatching time of their cysts. The BBD was employed to select 13 treatment combinations out of the 27 possible combinations that were grouped in an SSPD arrangement. Multiple responses were optimized simultaneously using Derringer’s desirability function. Photoperiod and temperature as well as temperature-salinity interaction were found to significantly affect the hatching percentage of Artemia, while the hatching time was significantly influenced by photoperiod and temperature, and their interaction. The optimum conditions were 23 h photoperiod, 29 °C temperature and 28 ppt salinity resulting in 96.8% hatching in 18.94 h. In order to verify the results obtained from BBD-SSPD experiment, the experiment was repeated preserving the same set up. Results of verification experiment were found to be similar to experiment originally conducted. It is expected that this method would be suitable to optimize the hatching process of animal eggs.