1 DECEMBER 1999
Sent: October 27, 1999
From: Cyrille GOARANT <Cyrille.Goarant@ifremer.fr>
To: <artemia-l@sparklist.com>
QUESTION:
Is anyone aware of the risk that Artemia cysts could contain any shrimp virus ?
A researcher from Thailand reported in a conference held in Sri Lanka
that he had found WSSV in Artemia. I do not have further information on this finding, for I was not present at the conference.
Dr Cyrille GOARANT
IFREMER
BP 2059 Nouméa
New Caledonia
South Pacific
Fax: (687) 28 78 57
***************
COMMENTS:
It is interesting that this RUMOR is surfacing again about Artemia being a vector for WSSV. I can tell you that when WSSV was first reported in the Americas that before the question was even asked, our company, INVE AQUACULTURE volunteered all of our commercial cyst resources for analysis. Initially some false positives were obtained by Dr. Don Lightner's Lab due to wrong PCR primers. After careful consultation with others in the scientific community the correct primers were selected and ALL samples came back negative.
If Artemia could be a vector it has been suggested to me by Dr. Lightner that it would be from Artemia that were packaged in plants that also process and package Penaeids in areas where the virus is present. It is widely agreed that the WSSV does not survive in the higher salinities of salinas or salt lakes in which Artemia reside.
Howard W. Newman
Inve Aquaculture, Inc
Artemia task-force div.
E-mail: Bshrimp@aol.com