The word vigilant has no more applicable or weighty meaning than in the area of shrimp diseases. Whether on the farm, or in the lab, a constant search for ways to prevent and respond to disease threats from home and abroad is necessary to ensure the success and ultimate long-term health of our domestic shrimp farming industry. Since its inception, the USMSFP has focused major research effort and maintained a proactive approach to the identification, pathology, epidemiology, and treatment of shrimp diseases to enable the development of a vibrant domestic farming industry. Our breeding program responded rapidly during the TSV outbreak of the mid-1990s to produce TSV-resistance lines of shrimp that are keystone to the biosecurity protocols now commonplace on US shrimp farms. It was the findings and urgings of USMSFP scientists about the risk commodity imports posed on introducing WSSV into our country that lead to the adoption in international aquatic animal health certificates of “country of origin labeling,” subsequently incorporated into the 2002 USDA Farm Bill. During 2003, USMSFP scientists identified two new bacterial diseases of overseas farmed shrimp, and one viral disease. Fortunately, none of these have arisen in the US, and our farms have remained virus-free for the last six years. These factors have enabled the US shrimp farming industry to grow production by over 280% over the same time period, to a record 12.3 million pounds in 2002. Webster defines vigilant as the state of being “alertly watchful, especially to avoid danger.” Constant vigilance has paid off. Disease research will continue to be an integral part of our efforts to protect and secure the future of the US shrimp farming industry.
In this issue of Industry Briefs, we offer three articles that highlight USMSFP vanguard efforts on disease prevention and control.
Oxytetracycline, shrimp, and the Food and Drug Administration: A status report. Don Lightner(UAZ), Rod Williams(UAZ), Bill Bray (TAES), and Addison Lawrence(TAES), provide a status report on an almost 30-year effort to gain approval of oxytetracycline (OTC) as a therapeutic. The Master file is being compiled and we should have word in 2004 on whether OTC will become the first drug approved by the FDA for use in shrimp in the US. This article also highlights the cooperative efforts between Consortium scientists from TAES and UAZ, and the Texas Shrimp Farmers’ Association.
Advances in Research on NHP. Amanda Vincent (USM), provides a synopsis of necrotizing hepatopancreatitis (NHP), of particular concern for farmers in south Texas. This article documents the advances the GCRL has made in developing methods to test and gain insight into this bacterial disease.
Seabirds as Vectors for Penaeid Shrimp Viral Diseases. Kristie Vanpatten (UAZ), M.S. candidate,discusses the role seagulls play as mechanical vectors of viral disease transmittance.
Read on and be part of the newest information from the sentinels on the frontlines of shrimp disease research.