DISEASE & HEALTH MANAGEMENT
What is the best method for early warning and prevention of WSSV in shrimp farming? Melony Sellars, Genics
White spot disease (WSD) is a highly contagious viral shrimp disease. First detected in East Asia in the early 1990s, it has since spread worldwide. Australia was considered free of White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) until 2016. At that time, Southeast Queensland had an incursion that started from imported uncooked commodities being used as recreational fishing bait in waterways adjacent to Penaeus monodon shrimp farms. The biosecurity response of the government resulted in all stock in the region being culled including 12th generation selectively bred breeding lines that were
Hatchery Feed & Management Vol 11 Issue 4 2023
producing three times more tonnes per hectare yearon-year compared to wild spawned larvae, with the added benefit of being highly robust and tolerant to endemic pathogens. With a movement restriction area (MRA) in place, these farms stayed dry for two years and one farm had another occurrence of WSSV afterward. This MRA region is now considered to have WSSV as endemic in natural waterways. In late 2022, WSSV was detected on a shrimp farm in Northern New South Wales (NSW) in locally caught broodstock. Since then, WSSV has been detected in
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