title: Feeding hermit crabs to shrimp broodstock increases their risk of WSSV infection.
abstract: White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a serious shrimp pathogen that has spread globally to all major shrimp farming areas, causing enormous economic losses. Here we investigate the role of hermit crabs in transmitting WSSV to Penaeus monodon brooders used in hatcheries in Vietnam. WSSV-free brooders became PCR-positive for WSSV within 2 to 14 d, and the source of infection was traced to hermit crabs being used as live feed. Challenging hermit crabs with WSSV confirmed their susceptibility to infection, but they remained tolerant to disease even at virus loads equivalent to those causing acute disease in shrimp. As PCR screening also suggests that WSSV infection occurs commonly in hermit crab populations in both Vietnam and Taiwan, their use as live feed for shrimp brooders is not recommended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Da-Yeh University, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yun-Shiang
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Wang-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tsan-Chi
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tin-Yam
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Kuan-Fu
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jie-Cheng
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Guang-Hsiung
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.forename: Chu-Fang
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Han-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D033381:Anomura; D017756:Aquaculture; D004032:Diet; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012307:Risk Factors; D046848:White spot syndrome virus 1 / Q000502:physiology*