Virulence Mechanisms, Detection and Control of Aquatic Animal Viruses

Dear Colleagues,

Aquaculture is now the main source of seafood for human consumption and is projected to rise to 62% by 2030 as catches from wild capture fisheries will continue to be flat for the foreseeable future. Fish, mollusks, and crustaceans represent the most economically important global aquaculture industry subsectors, expected to reach $202.96 billion USD this year. The fast growth of intensive aquaculture in the last 4 decades has been accompanied by the emergence of aquatic animal viruses (Table 1) that impose severe economic losses on the aquaculture industry. This is inherent in farming a large number of animal species in the aquatic environment that may be a viral reservoir, and particularly in marine aquaculture, where the farmer has less control of the system. Several strategies are used to ensure sustainability of this industry, including improved biosecurity, implementation of diagnostic tools and surveillance programs for early detection of virus infections, use of efficacious viral vaccines in finfish aquaculture, and use of immunostimulants, probiotics/prebiotics/symbiotics and other novel control technologies (e.g., RNA interference, RNAi) where vaccination is not as effective such as in crustacean and mollusk aquaculture. These strategies have been supported by the development of reverse genetic systems of aquatic animal RNA viruses, allowing genetic manipulation of viral genomes, which has facilitated identification of virulence factors (i.e., gene products that influence high virulence of aquatic animal viruses) and development of improved diagnostics and vaccines.

This Special Issue of Pathogens aims to cover the broad spectrum of recent advances in research on virulence mechanisms, detection, and prevention and control of aquatic animal viruses. Our purpose is to compile a body of work identifying virulence mechanisms in aquatic animal viruses with the aim of improving strategies for detection and prevention and control of aquatic animal viruses in order to mitigate the risk of rapid virus spread and of development of clinical disease and so stem the tide of emerging aquatic animal viruses. We therefore encourage the submission of review articles, original research full-length articles or short communications, or commentary covering any aspect of these topics. We look forward to your valuable contributions that will promote further developments in this field.

I am honored and delighted to guest-edit this Special Issue and thank you for your anticipated contribution.

Prof. Frederick Kibenge
Guest Editor

References

1. Biacchesi, S. 2011. The reverse genetics applied to fish RNA viruses. Veterinary Research 42:12.
2. Chiu, C.-H., Guu, Y.-K., Liu, C.-H., Pan, T.-M., Cheng, W. 2007. Immune responses and gene expression in white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, induced by Lactobacillus plantarum. Fish Shellfish Immunol. 23: 364–377.
3. Evensen, Ø. 2020. Immunology and vaccinology of farmed aquatic animals. In: Kibenge, F.S.B., and Powell, M. (Eds.), Aquaculture Health Management. Publisher: Academic Press (Elsevier), (in press).
4. Kibenge, F.S.B. 2019. Emerging viruses in aquaculture. Invited review article in “Emerging Viruses: Interspecies transmission” section of Current Opinion in Virology (Editors-in-Chief: Mary Estes, Marion Koopamans and Ab Osterhaus), Guest Editors Jürgen Richt and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre. Current Opinion in Virology 34:97-103, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2018.12.008.
5. Scarfe, D., Palić, D. 2020. Aquaculture biosecurity: Practical approach to prevent, control and eradicate diseases. In: Kibenge, F.S.B., and Powell, M. (Eds.), Aquaculture Health Management. Publisher: Academic Press (Elsevier), (in press).
6. Smith, V.J., Brown, J.H., Hauton, C. 2003. Immunostimulation in crustaceans: does it protect against infection? Fish Shellfish Immunol. 15:71-90.
7. Stentiford, G.D., Neil, D.M., Peeler, E.J., Shields, J.D., Small, H.J., Flegel, T.W., Vlak, J.M., Jones, B., Morado, F., Moss, S., Lotz, J., Bartholomay, L., Behringer, D.C., Hauton, C., Lightner, D.V. 2012. Disease will limit future food supply from global crustacean fishery and aquaculture sectors. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 110:141-157. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2012.03.013.
8. Stentiford, G.D., Sritunyalucksana, K., Flegel, T.W., Williams, B.A.P., Withyachumnarnkul, B. Itsathitphaisarn, O. 2017. New paradigms to help solve the global aquaculture disease crisis. PLoS Pathog 13: e1006160. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006160.
9. Wang, Q., Ji, W., Xu, Z. 2020. Current use and development of fish vaccines in China. Fish and Shellfish Immunology 96:223-234.

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• Pathogenesis
• Virus virulence
• Biosecurity
• Virulence factors
• Reverse genetics
• Metagenomics
• Next-generation sequencing (NGS)
• In vitro growth kinetics
• Virus discovery
• RNA interference (RNAi)
• Viral proteins
• Viral vaccines
• Immunostimulants

• Virulence Mechanisms, Detection and Control of Aquatic Animal Viruses: 2nd Edition in Pathogens (1 article)