1National Centre for Aquatic Animal Health, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682 016, India.
2Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682 016, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) is a global scourge in shrimp culture systems which causes great economic loses. It is important to have a better prophylactic measure to protect shrimp grout systems from WSSV. Here we have developed A cocktail vaccine ‘Shrimpvac-I’ and tested its efficacy in field conditions. A cocktail vaccine ‘Shrimpvac-I’ consisting of inactivated White Spot Virus (WSV), bacterins (inactivated pathogenic isolates of Vibrio MCCB 727 & MCCB 708) and immunostimulant (PG Aqua –Peptidoglycan) was developed for oral vaccination of shrimp validated under field conditions to protect from WSV. Vaccination commenced from Post larval stage -10 (PL-10) and repeated 7 times continuously for 3 consecutive days providing an interval of 10 days in grow out system. The culture could be completed in the grow out with in 90 days with an over all survival of 56.5% at the time of harvest. A total biomass of 687.7kg could be harvested from 0.80 hectare pond. Animals sampled during harvest survived 4 challenges with WSV at an interval of 15 days under laboratory conditions. Hematological profile 3 days after the 4th challenge showed high reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and low prophenol oxidase activity, indicating the non interference of viral particles with the proPO system, but being simply phagocytized. The histological observation revealed enlarged eosinophilic granulated nuclei instead of hypertrophy. The results showed that successful prawn culture is possible by a periodic vaccination using the cocktail vaccine – Shrimpvac-I.