Abstract

AGUADO GARCIA, Nieves; BOADA, Mélida  and  DE DONATO, Marco. Detection of Taura Syndrome Virus in Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone) from Western of Venezuela.. Rev. Cient. (Maracaibo) [online]. 2008, vol.18, n.2, pp.134-141. ISSN 0798-2259.

Taura syndrome virus considerably affects the cultures of peneid shrimp causing elevated mortalities, reflected on the decrease of the production and the increase the operational costs. This work describes the clinical signs of an infection with Taura Syndrome Virus on cultivated Litopenaeus vannamei in farms located in Western Venezuela. Shrimp samples with very conspicuous clinical signs and those that had overcome the illness were taken from affected farms. The effects of TSV were observed in juvenile, subadults and adult shrimp. The farms located off the coast of Maracaibo Lake were the most affected. The acute and chronic cases showed typical spheroids in the lymphoid organ. The RT-PCR analysis confirmed that the clinical signs shown by the affected shrimp were due to infection by the Taura virus.

Keywords : Litopenaeus vannamei; Taura Syndrome Virus; RT-PCR; histopathology; Maracaibo Lake.