Virus Infects Sustainable Water Prawn Farm in Scotland
The world’s first sustainable, land-based, clean water prawn farm as claimed by Great British Prawns was infected with Infectious Hypodermal & Hematopoietic Necrosis virus (IHHNV), causing a culling of more than half of the shrimp population.
This sustainable farm was to produce warm water king prawns – also known as Pacific whiteleg shrimp - for the first time in the UK and the farm imported 350,000 crustaceans from USA. However, more than half of the crustaceans died during its import into Scotland and more were culled when the shrimps were diagnosed with IHHNV. This left only 43,000 shrimps remaining on the farm in the first month.
Presence of IHHNV tends to negatively affect prawn farms. This is because it causes physical abnormalities and slow growth in the prawn. It can also weaken the prawn’s immune system, making it easier to be infected by other diseases. Farmers will have to suffer a loss of profit due to high mortality among the prawn population.
Speedy Assay is able to provide a solution for early detection of IHHNV with our ShrimpCheck IHHNV PCR kit and Real-time PCR kit. Both the PCR and Real-time PCR kits have 100% specificity and sensitivity, so as to ensure our customers’ results are very accurate. The kits also contain internal and external controls that ensure the kits are providing reliable results and are functioning optimally. We aim to supply our customers with our products, so as to help them avoid any losses caused by spread of infectious shrimp diseases.
We also offer shrimp disease detection kits for other shrimp diseases. Please click here to learn more.
References:
- The National. Virus cull at Great British Prawns' Scottish site revealed. Accessed 8th January 2020.
- The Fish Site. Infectious Hypodermal and Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHHN). Accessed 8th January 2020.