To mitigate the economic losses provoked by disease outbreaks, shrimp producers employ therapeutic additives. However, important issues such as the toxicity of these products on shrimp are not always considered. In vivo toxicity assays require a lot of time and large economic and physical resources. Here, we describe an in vitro procedure to evaluate the toxicity of functional additives, used in the production of shrimp Penaeus vannamei. This method adapted the cell viability assay based on the reduction of tetrazolium salts (MTT) to primary cell cultures of shrimp hemocytes. •A simple and reliable tool that requires few physical and economic resources to evaluate in short time (6 h) the cytotoxic effect of therapeutic products and additives to be included in shrimp culture•This inexpensive method requires only a modified Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) containing Ca2+ and Mg2+ to keep hemocytes metabolically active to successfully carry out the cytotoxicity assay•This toxicity in vitro assay does not require exposure of the shrimp to compounds at toxic concentrations.
Keywords: Metabolism; Tetrazolium salts; Viable hemocyte.