SEAFDEC News

PHILIPPINES - A vaccine is being field tested against Viral Nervous Necrosis (VNN), a virus that causes one of the world’s most lethal fish diseases that wipes out entire stocks.

MalayaBusinessInsight reports that the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) is currently developing a vaccine for VNN as, at present, there is no drug available to prevent the hard to control infection.

Talking to Malaya Business Insight, Dr Joebert D. Toledo, from the(SEAFDEC) Aquaculture Department, said: "The emergence of fish diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and other parasites is one of the downsides of the booming aquaculture industry."

While a vaccine for VNN is also being developed in Japan and Taiwan, the SEAFDEC vaccine is being tested in broodstock, or breeders, as an attempt to produce offspring that are free from VNN, explained Dr Rolando V. Pakingking Jr, a virologist at SEAFDEC’s Fish Health Section.

JAPAN - Researchers are trying to decode the ''language'' of oysters using a machine that watches the animals for indications of changes in the environment. The goal is to prevent mass die-offs caused by red tide or oxygen deficiency.

The device is called ''Kai-Lingual,'' a play on the Japanese word for shellfish, ''kai,'' and it observes the opening and closing movements of the bivalves’ shells, which can point to red tide, oxygen deficiency or other abnormalities in seawater that could lead to oyster mortalities.

The experiment began this fall at Shido Bay in Sanuki, Kagawa Prefecture and will last until March.