Gary Spiller, a fisheries consultant who worked for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Asia, says disease is common where fish farms are not closely regulated. In 1987 Taiwan became the largest prawn producer in the world. A year later disease struck and production dropped by 70 per cent. The industry never recovered. Spiller says Taiwan was just the first to crash. The Philippine prawn industry is currently suffering from disease problems and experts predict prawn farms in Thailand will be hit next.