Taura Syndrome Virus outbreak in Venezuela

The deadly Taura syndrome virus (TSV), according to unconfirmed reports, has hit Venezuelan shrimp farms.

The magnitude of the outbreak is uncertain, but could be extensive. More details will be reported as they become available.

Venezuela exported nearly 34 million pounds of shrimp to the U.S> market in the January-November period worth approximately $81 million.

TSV has wreaked havoc on farms through the Americas and elsewhere for over a decade.

Since it was first reported in Ecuador in June 1992, the virus, named for the river in which it was first found, has turned up in shrimp farms in neighboring Peru and Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, northeast Brazil, Nicaragua, Belize, the Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chiapas, Guerrero, and Hawaii, Florida and Texas.

TSV is also known as red tail or blackspot disease, and was introduced to Taiwan in 1999, where it caused massive losses in the developing shrimp-farming industry there. Shrimp farms in the United States producing white shrimp has also been infected.

In 1995, TSV was found in hatchery ponds in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and in June 1996, it was found in four South Carolina shrimp farms.

For the first time ever, another deadly disease responsible for nearly wiping out South America's shrimp industry in the late 1990s, was detected on Brazilian shrimp farms just last month.

Samples of Pacific white shrimp from 20 ponds in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina all tested positive for the white spot shrimp virus, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

The disease was diagnosed using advanced tests conducted at the University of Arizona's Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory under the auspices of Donald Lightner, one of the nation's foremost experts on shrimp pathology.

According to information WOAH received Friday from Jorge Caetano Jr., director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply's Department of Animal Protection, an emergency harvest was ordered for all crops and the destruction of infected shrimp was carried out.

The outbreaks reportedly occurred between Dec. 10 and 15, but were not confirmed until Jan 14. The premises were decontaminated and disinfected. However pervasive the disease is unknown, however. The mortality rates in the 20 infected ponds ranged from 50 percent to 95.6 percent.

WSSV was first identified in Taiwan in 1992. Since its appearance, it has heaped major economic losses on the shrimp-culture industries throughout Asia.

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