Singapore is the second largest importer of mud crabs in the world after China as the crustacean is often consumed as part of the local iconic Singapore Chilli crab dish . The local demand for the crab far outweighs the supply that it could get from overseas imports. About 10 tons of crabs particularly Scylla serrata of sizes between 650 g and 1.5 kg are consumed daily. According to trade statistics (as of May 2023 by Volza’s Singapore Import data), an average of 3,300 tons of mud crab as both live and chilled crabs are imported by Singapore annually from India, Vietnam and Sri lanka.
Due to the high local demand for mud crab consumption, research and development in mud crab hatchery was initiated by the Aquaculture Innovation Centre, Temasek Polytechnic. Wild caught mud crabs of sizes between 300 and 500 g purchased from mud crab importers are cleaned up and prophylactically treated before they are used for breeding or spawning.
The project aims to develop an alternative prophylactic treatment that is environmentally friendly and also safe for use. A comparative performance on the efficacy of using formalin, oxolinic acid and sodium per carbonate (SPC) in the prophylactic treatment of male and female mud crabs of about 250 g was studied over 3 days. Total coliform count was greatly reduced in SPC and oxolinic treated mud crabs as opposed to those treated with formalin. The preliminary observations would be further investigated using a larger sample size in future study.