Experimental Infections with Baculovirus penaei in the White Shrimp Penaeus vannamei (Crustacea: Decapoda) as a Bioassay

Infections of the virus Baculovirus penaei (BP) have historically impacted penaeid shrimp production in both hatcheries and ponds. BP causes cytopathological alterations and mortality in at least four species, including Penueus vannamei . This study established experimental infections with BP in laboratory‐reared P. vannamei . The most useful protocol involved BP infection in third substage protozoea (P 3 ) induced by feeding virus‐contaminated material to rotifers and, in turn, feeding those rotifers to the shrimp larva. Infections were also established by delivering virus‐containing brine shrimp to mysis (M) and postlarval (PL) stages. When virus originating from infected adults and juveniles was fed to P 3 's, the shrimp exhibited patent infections with hypertrophic nuclei, polyhedra, free virions, and occluded virions five or six days after being fed the virus. In contrast, when the source of virus material was from bioassay larvae rather than from adults and juveniles, similar patent infections developed in P 3 's by one to two days. A significant mortality in the resulting M's and PL's was associated with the infections with short but not long prepatent periods. In experimentally infected shrimp, examination by light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed extensive viral infection in many cells in the anterior midgut and as many as 80–90% of the proximal and medial hepatopancreatic tubular cells. Free and occluded virions capable of producing disease ruptured into the gut lumen soon after infections became patent. Tests conducted in 1 L Imhoff cones, 160 L spat‐cones, and aquaria all produced infections, usually with a prevalence of 100%. The system provides a useful method to detect and assay for infective agents, to amass infective material for research purposes, and to assess the biology of and host response to the virus under different conditions.