Sequence comparisons of the genomes of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) strains have identified regions containing variable-length insertions/deletions (i.e. indels). Indel-I and Indel-II, positioned between open reading frames (ORFs) 14/15 and 23/24, respectively, are the largest and the most variable. Here we examined the nature of these 2 indel regions in 313 WSSVinfected Penaeus monodon shrimp collected between 2006 and 2009 from 76 aquaculture ponds in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. In the Indel-I region, 2 WSSV genotypes with deletions of either 5950 or 6031 bp in length compared with that of a reference strain from Thailand (WSSV-TH-96-II) were detected. In the Indel-II region, 4 WSSV genotypes with deletions of 8539, 10 970, 11 049 or 11 866 bp in length compared with that of a reference strain from Taiwan (WSSV-TW) were detected, and the 8539 and 10 970 bp genotypes predominated. Indel-II variants with longer deletions were found to correlate statistically with WSSV-diseased shrimp originating from more intensive farming systems. Like Indel-I lengths, Indel-II lengths also varied based on the Mekong Delta province from which farmed shrimp were collected.KEY WORDS: White spot syndrome virus · Disease status · Farming system · Epidemiology · ORF 14/15 · ORF 23/24Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Dis Aquat Org 99: [153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162] 2012 highly (> 99.5%) conserved (Nadala & Loh 1998, Marks et al. 2004.The 2 major genomic indels are located between open reading frames (ORFs) 14/15 (Indel-I) and 23/24 (Indel-II) of the sequenced Thai strain WSSV-TH-96-I (van Hulten et al. 2001, Marks et al. 2004. Compared with another sequenced Thai strain (WSSV-TH-96-II), WSSV-TH-96-I has a 5.3 kb deletion in Indel-I (Marks et al. 2005) and differs from a strain from Taiwan (WSSV-TW) by possessing a 13.2 kb deletion in Indel-II (Marks et al. 2004). Sequence analyses of these 2 indel regions in other Asian WSSV strains have identified intermediatelength deletions (Dieu et al. 2004, Zwart et al. 2010. For example, WSSV strains from China contain shorter Indel-II deletions (1168 to 5928 bp) compared with WSSV-TW, while strains from Vietnam contain a medium-length Indel-II deletion (~8539 bp) not yet found in strains examined from other geographic regions (Dieu et al. 2004; see also Yang et al. 2001, Lan et al. 2002, Tan & Shi 2011.Indel-I and Indel-II regions are now being used as molecular markers to study WSSV epidemiology (Dieu et al. 2004, Zwart et al. 2010, and Indel-II is proving to be particularly useful for examining the spatiotemporal spread of WSSV at regional (Dieu et al. 2010) and intercontinental levels (Zwart et al. 2010). Data on Indel-II support a hypothesis that all WSSV strains affecting farmed shrimp have a recent common ancestor. This virus presumably circulated in China or Taiwan before spreading to shrimp farms in Vietnam, from there to Thailand (Dieu et al. 2004) and from there to India (Pradeep et al. 2008a)...