• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Veterinary Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.41-41
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• 2003

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the causative agent of a disease that has led to severe mortalities of cultured shrimps in Korea and many other countries. Since 1993, massive mortalities due to the viral infection have also occurred in the penaeid shrimps cultured in Korea. WSSV is a large, circular, double stranded (ds) DNA virus and an enveloped, ellipsoid virus with a rod-shaped nucleocapsid with flat ends. In order to identify the characteristics of this Korean isolate of WSSV, the genes for four virion proteins, VP15, VP19, VP28 and VP35 were cloned and their sequences were compared with the available pool of WSSV gene sequences in the GenBank/EMBL databases. From these comparisons, we confirm the occurrence of WSSV in Korea and deduce that, VP15, VP28 and VP35 genes are identically conserved among the Korean isolate and geographically different foreign isolates, but VP19 amino acid sequences of the Korean WSSV isolates changed valine of the foreign isolates into aspartate. (omitted)

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.511-515
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• 2007

White-spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a devastating, infectious virus affecting shrimp. Although sensitive techniques involving PCR have been developed to assist farmers in screening shrimp (brood stock) for WSSV prior to stocking ponds, such practices have not yet been applied in Korea. Despite the rationality of implementing screening, there has been some doubt as to whether the stocking of WSSV-PCR-negative fly epidemiologically decreases white-spot disease outbreaks. Here, we report a retrospective analysis of data from shrimp farms in the western coast of Korea where WSSV-PCR-negative brood stocks were used to stock rearing ponds. A total of 366 shrimp from Heuksan Island were sampled for WSSV with PCR. Of the tested shrimp, 7.2% (28 brood stocks) were identified as WSSV positive; only WSSV-PCR-negative shrimp were used for brood stocks. Total unit production (final shrimp production/ the area of the ponds) was higher, at 1.96, in ponds where WSSV-PCR-negative shrimp were used, as compared with 1.02 in other ponds in Korea in 2004. This retrospective analysis of WSSV in Korea may be useful to the shrimp aquaculture industry, suggesting a testable hypothesis that may contribute to the eventual control of WSSV outbreaks.