Prevalence of white spot virus and monodon baculovirus in shrimp culture systems of West Bengal, India

The global shrimp aquaculture is impacted by episodes of viral diseases resulting in huge income losses. This communication presents the results of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based surveillance of white spot virus (WSV) and monodon baculovirus (MBV) in shrimp culture systems of West Bengal, India. The WSV was detected in 14.87% of the total samples (N = 121) by first PCR and 16.53% of samples by nested PCR. The WSV infection was noticed in 12 of 65 Penaeus monodon, 6 of 39 Litopenaeus vannamei and 2 of 11 Macrobrachium rosenbergii samples. The MBV was detected in 8 of 65 P. monodon samples by non-nested PCR and all were also positive for WSV, thus indicating concurrent infection of shrimp. The results emphasized the need to observe strict quarantine measures during the seed selection to prevent the introduction of viral pathogens in grow-out systems.