Abstract
Abalone viral ganglioneuritis (AVG), caused by Haliotid herpesvirus-1 (HaHV-1; previously called abalone herpesvirus), is a disease that has been responsible for extensive mortalities in wild and farmed abalone and has caused significant economic losses in Asia and Australia since outbreaks occurred in the early 2000s. Researchers from Taiwan, China, and Australia have conducted numerous studies encompassing HaHV-1 genome sequencing, development of molecular diagnostic tests, and evaluation of the susceptibility of various abalone species to AVG as well as studies of gene expression in abalone upon virus infection. This review presents a timeline of the most significant research findings on AVG and HaHV-1 as well as potential future research avenues to further understand this disease in order to develop better management strategies.
Highlights
Until recently, most studies on herpesviruses have been carried out on mammals, including humans, as research funding has mainly been aimed at solving problems of medical or agricultural nature
Knowledge of aquatic herpesviruses and their interactions with their hosts has remained sparse. This situation has changed since the early 1990s with the occurrence of ostreid herpesvirus-1 (OsHV-1), which impacted Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) culture in countries such as France, USA, UK, New Zealand, and Australia [1,2,3,4,5]
Unknown at the time, abalone herpesvirus (AbHV) is believed to have caused significant economic damage to H. diversicolor supertexta cultured in Dongshan County of Fujian Province, China, in the late 1990s and early 2000s [7,8]
Summary
Most studies on herpesviruses have been carried out on mammals, including humans, as research funding has mainly been aimed at solving problems of medical or agricultural nature. Knowledge of aquatic herpesviruses and their interactions with their hosts has remained sparse This situation has changed since the early 1990s with the occurrence of ostreid herpesvirus-1 (OsHV-1), which impacted Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) culture in countries such as France, USA, UK, New Zealand, and Australia [1,2,3,4,5]. The first herpesvirus infection of abalone, caused by the abalone herpesvirus (AbHV), was officially reported in 2003 in Taiwan [6], causing acute disease with rapid onset and high mortality of farmed Haliotis diversicolor supertexta. To this day (2020), Taiwanese farmed abalone still suffer from AVG, putting financial hardship on the industry [personal communication]. The abalone wild catch is more modest with a production of 6341 metric tons per annum in 2017 but remains a significant contributor to the local economies of some countries such as Australia, with wild abalone fisheries valued at AU$200m in 2017–2018 [16,17,18]
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