Photo credit: Andres Delgado (Colombia) Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The facility shown in the inserted picture belongs to the Corporación Centro de Investigación de la Acuacultura de Colombia (Colombian Aquaculture Research Center, CENIACUA) located in Punta Canoa, Bolívar Department, Colombia.
A selective-breeding program to develop resistant populations of white-leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) to white spot virus (WSSV) launched at CENIACUA.
WSSV has been considered the most pathogenic of all the serious diseases affecting the global shrimp industry. The disease was first reported in China in 1992 and by 2000, the disease spread to most of the major shrimp-farming countries.
Based on the low heritability of WSSV resistance as well as the negative correlations found between WSSV resistance and growth rate as well as the resistance and reproductive ability, the selection program and selection pressure have been determined and applied.
This Colombian breeding program has produced shrimp populations that are much more resistant to WSSV than unselected populations. According to published research, improving the survival rates and enhancing the reproductive capacity of the WSSV-resistant populations appears to be important research points for future research.
