Detection of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) in Mexico

Abstract

Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), which has also been referred to as early mortality syndrome (EMS), initially emerged as a destructive disease of cultured shrimp species in Asia in 2009. The pathogen associated with the disease, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, subsequently spread to the Western Hemisphere and emerged in Mexico in early 2013. The spread to the Western Hemisphere is a major concern to shrimp producers in the region. To date, the only peer-reviewed published method for determining whether mortalities are due to AHPND is through histological examination. A novel PCR detection method was employed to assess samples from Mexico in order to confirm the presence of the pathogen in this country. This manuscript details the detection methods used to confirm the presence of AHPND in Mexico. Both immersion and per os challenge studies were used to expose the Penaeus vannamei to the bacteria in order to induce the disease. Histological analysis confirmed AHPND status following the challenge studies. Also provided are the details of the molecular test by PCR that was used for screening candidate V. parahaemolyticus isolates. A rapid PCR assay for detection of AHPND may help with early detection and help prevent the spread of AHPND to other countries.

Use of probiotic-supplemented diet on a Pacific white shrimp farm

“…This result is related to the ability of lactic acid bacteria such as L. plantarum to inhibit the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria to the intestinal mucosa (Balcázar et al, 2008) and to produce antimicrobial substances such as plantaricin (Hernández et al, 2005), hydrogen peroxide, and organic acids (Kongnun and Hongpattarakere, 2012). Therefore, the use of L. plantarum in the diet can help in the prevention of Vibrio disease, such as the acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), which is dramatically affecting the culture of shrimp in Asia and Mexico (Nunan et al, 2013). The survival of shrimp supplemented with L. plantarum was higher (P<0.05) ( Table 3).…”

Necrosis aguda del hepatopáncreas: una revisión de la enfermedad en Penaeus vannamei

“…En el continente americano el AHPND se diagnosticó en el año 2013, generando altas mortalidades y disminución de producción en México, específicamente en los estados de Sonora, Nayarit y Sinaloa Nunan et al, 2014;Pantoja y Lightner, 2014;Sánchez et al, 2014;Sirikharin et al, 2015). Por último, se identificó en Centroamérica en el 2015 (Han et al, 2015b), donde no se especificó el país, pero posteriormente, se informó su presencia en los cultivos en Belice (Shrimp News International, 2015).…”

Back to the Basics: Biomimicry in Shrimp Farming

“…Despite the quantum leap in production in the last decade, the rising graph of shrimp production has been severely punctuated by diseases, especially the White Spot Syndrome Virus causing heavy mortalities in the South east Asian countries (Lightner, 1999), Taura Syndrome Virus in Ecuador (Brock et al, 1997), the outbreak of Infectious Myonecrosis Virus in northeast Brazil (Lightner and Pantoja, 2004) and more recently, yellow head virus (YHV) (Senapin et al, 2010) that causes yellow head disease (YHD), Early mortality syndrome (EMS) or acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) outbreak in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico (Joshi et al, 2014;Nunan et al, 2014;Soto-Rodriguez et al, 2015), hepatopancreatic microsporidiosis (HPM), hepatopancreatic haplosporidiosis (HPH), aggregated transformed microvilli (ATM) and covert mortality disease (CMD) in South east Asian countries (Thitamadee et al, 2016). A summary of recent diseases in aquaculture has been given in Table 1.…”