Taura Syndrome - Methods of Control

Methods of Control

Management strategies for the disease have included raising more resistant species such as the Western blue shrimp (Penaeus stylirostris) and stocking of specific pathogen free (SPF) or specific pathogen resistant (SPR) shrimp. Relatively simple laboratory challenges can be used to predict the performance of selected stocks in farms where TSV is enzootic. The resistant shrimp lines currently raised have reached nearly complete resistance to some TSV variants and further improvement due to breeding for TSV-resistance is expected be minor for these variants. Significant improvements in TSV survival were made through selective breeding despite low to moderate heritability for this trait.

A management strategy used to reduce the impact of TS has been the practice of stocking postlarval shrimp at increased stocking density. Following this strategy, farms would experience mortality due to TS at an early stage of the production cycle, before substantial feeding had begun and the surviving shrimp would be resistant to further TSV challenges. Other techniques used with limited efficacy have been the polyculture of shrimp with tilapia and maintenance of near-optimal water quality conditions in the grow-out ponds with reduction of organic loading. Transgenic shrimp expressing an antisense TSV coat protein (TSV-CP) exhibited increased survival in TSV challenges. The public perception of transgenic animals, as well as current technical limitations, limit the use of transgenic animals as a mean of disease control.