New technologies to enhance resistance to oyster herpes virus ...

• Main Author: Potts, Robert W. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The University of Edinburgh 2023
• Subjects: pacific oysters; oyster genome editing; Crassostrea gigas; OsHV-1 μVar; test protocols; marine invertebrate cell culture; OsHV-1 infection; electroporation; Pacific; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/3833; https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/41094

Aquaculture is the fastest growing farmed food sector in the world and is a key part of global food security, encompassing the farming of fishes, molluscans and crustaceans. The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is a globally important species, farmed commercially across the world. The major threat facing sustainable growth of Pacific oyster aquaculture is the spread of disease, chiefly the pathogenic oyster herpes virus microvariant (OsHV-1 uVar). Biosecurity has so far proven the best way to reduce the impact of OsHV-1, but has not been totally successful as outbreaks have continued to occur where oysters are grown in the open seas. Vaccination against OsHV-1 is not currently possible as oysters lack a sophisticated adaptive immune system. The cost of OsHV-1 outbreaks is large, both in terms of food and economic losses, and is the focus of research and development worldwide. For example, selective breeding programmes have been used to develop strains of oysters that are more resistant to OsHV-1 through the ...