Testing Penaeid Shrimp for Susceptibility to an Insect Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus 1

Abstract

Postlarval, early, and late juvenile stages of two species of penaeid shrimp, Penaeus aztecus Ives and P. setiferus (L.), were tested for susceptibility to a nuclear polyhedrosis virus from Autographa californica (Speyer). Shrimp were exposed to the virus by intramuscular inoculation of polyhedral protein-free virus and by feeding a diet containing virus polyhedra. Mortality attributable to viral infection did not occur dunng the 30-day test period, nor was there histological evidence of viral activity in shrimp hepatopancreas, gut, gill, striated muscle, ventral nerve, and segment nerve ganglia, or hypodermis.