Cox N, De Swaef E, Corteel M, Van Den Broeck W, Bossier P, Dantas-Lima JJ, Nauwynck HJ. The Way of Water: Unravelling White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) Transmission Dynamics in
Litopenaeus vannamei Shrimp.
Viruses 2023;
15:1824. [PMID:
37766231 PMCID:
PMC10534367 DOI:
10.3390/v15091824]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2023] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
White spot disease (WSD) is a severe viral threat to the global shrimp aquaculture industry. However, little is known about white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) transmission dynamics. Our aim was to elucidate this in Litopenaeus vannamei using peroral in vivo WSSV challenge experiments. We demonstrated that WSD progression was rapid and irreversible, leading to death within 78 h. Viral DNA shedding was detected within 6 h of disease onset. This shedding intensified over time, reaching a peak within 12 h of the time of death. Isolating shrimp (clinically healthy and diseased) from infected populations at different time points post-inoculation showed that host-to-host WSSV transmission was occurring around the time of death. Exposing sentinels to environmental components (i.e., water, feces, molts) collected from tanks housing WSSV-infected shrimp resulted in a significantly (p-value < 0.05) increased infection risk after exposure to water (1.0) compared to the risk of infection after exposure to feces (0.2) or molts (0.0). Furthermore, ingestion of WSSV-infected tissues (cannibalism) did not cause a significantly higher number of WSD cases compared to immersion in water in which the same degree of cannibalism had taken place.
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