Seafood CRC: optimisation of viral clearance from broodstock prawns using targeted RNA interference

Funded Activity Summary

Outbreaks of viral disease accompanied by morbidity and mortalities occur sporadically in Australian prawn farms and are generally worst when environmental conditions are less favourable, as in the recent 2010/2011 grow-out season. Poor survival and poor market quality caused by viral disease can impact significantly on farm productivity and even the larger and more sophisticated operations are vulnerable. As the Australian industry moves towards the use of domesticated lines of genetically improved prawn species, there is an increasing need for a method capable of clearing or markedly reducing viral infection loads from valuable broodstock, thus minimizing the risks of infection being passed to progeny, either as part of breeding programs or for commercial production. Similarly, as the infection prevalence of viruses can be high amongst wild-caught broodstock still used in most hatcheries, an easy and commercially-applicable method for clearing or reducing viral infection loads would have broad industry value. In the case of Australian farmed P. monodon, GAV has the highest economic impact of known viral pathogens whilst for Australian farmed Banana prawns (Penaeus merguiensis), it is Hepatopancreatic-parvovirus (HPV). This project will therefore optimise RNAi methods to clear GAV from P. monodon whilst also producing putative RNAi reagents suitable for accomplishing the same with the Australian strain of HPV for future use in P. merguiensis. The HPV-specific dsRNAs generated will be used in this project as non-GAV non-specific controls during optimisation of dsRNAs targeted specifically at GAV.As mentioned earlier, the industry value of this project is demonstrated by the strong letter of support from the APFA attached to this application.

Objectives:
1. A suite of dsRNAs targeted to GAV
2. Knowledge of the efficacy of muscle injection of the dsRNA suite in clearing or reducing GAV infection loads in P. monodon with chronic GAV infection
3. Knowledge of the spawning performance of P. monodon broodstock in which GAV infection loads have been reduced or cleared using the RNAi strategy

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2012

End Date: 28-02-2014

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $113,712.89

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Fisheries Management | Husbandry | Mortality | Processing & packaging | Recreational Fishing | Restocking | Stock Assessment

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