Nonindigenous Pathogenic Shrimp Virus Introductions Into the United States: Developing a Qualitative. H. K. Austin and W. H. van der Schalie, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC; C. Menzie, Menzie-Cura and Associates, Chelmsford, MA; A. Fairbrother, Ecological Planning & Toxicology, Corvallis, OR; and J. H. Gentile, University of Miami, Miami, FL
Public concerns for the potential introduction and spread of nonindigenous pathogenic shrimp viruses to shrimp aquaculture and to the wild shrimp fishery in the U.S. have increased. Although these viruses pose no known threat to humans, outbreaks on U.S. shrimp farms, the appearance of diseased shrimp in U.S. commerce, and the susceptibility of shrimp and other crustaceans to these viruses prompted the Federal interagency Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JSA; National Science and Technology Council) to initiate an ecological risk assessment. In collaboration with the JSA, the EPA sponsored a peer review and qualitative ecological risk assessment conducted by a group of scientific and technical experts at a public workshop. Workshop findings indicated that pathogenic shrimp viruses could survive in pathways leading to coastal environments, and there is potential for viruses to affect native shrimp in localized areas, such as an estuary or bay. However, local populations of shrimp would be expected to recover rapidly as a result of reintroduction of shrimp, or increases in shrimp reproduction. Although associated with a high uncertainty, risks from nonindigenous virus introductions to the entire population of native shrimp in U.S. coastal waters to be relatively low. Further systematic research efforts to reduce uncertainties are needed, including effects on organisms other than shrimp, improved diagnostic methods, virus transmission and virulence, and field epidemiologic studies. Results of the workshop were used as the basis for a subsequent shrimp virus risk management workshop that addressed options and strategies for managing the threat of shrimp viruses to cultured and wild stocks of shrimp in U.S. coastal waters.
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