Thailand has been one of the top exporters of fish and fish products for decades and is now in the top 5 countries for shrimp production. Aquaculture plays a major role for the food security in this country and makes an increasing contribution to its economic growth. Between 2014 and 2017, Thailand's shrimp and prawn export market has fluctuated around U.S $1.8 billion. However over the past few years, the repeated shrimp disease outbreaks encountered by the industry have resulted in declined shrimp exports, which are only gradually being overcome. A risk assessment of disease outbreaks would help farmers to minimize the economic losses and to make decisions concerning early harvest. This paper highlights key findings, strategies' issues and conclusions from the risk assessment practices carried out worldwide for reducing the risk of shrimp disease outbreaks and improve farm productivity. A critical review has been carried out for identification and classification of risk factors, level of risk estimation, limitation and applicability of various quantitative and semi-quantitative risk assessment models used globally and associated uncertainties. This study also aims at identifying critical risk-relevant research gaps and evaluates the need for a more comprehensive risk assessment. Emphasis is given to explore other potential solutions for disease control measures and use of earth observation satellite data in shrimp aquaculture. The results of this study form a solid basis for the future development of comprehensive and reliable frameworks to assess the risk of disease outbreaks in shrimp aquaculture.