Argulus, an obligate macroectoparasite, infests a wide range of fishes causing severe economic loss to aquaculture industry. The application of chemotherapeutants is the most common approach to combat argulosis. But it is very expensive and has a range of negative impacts on the host and environment. An alternative to the extensive use of chemotherapeutics is to restrict Argulus infestation by adopting a range of biosecurity and quarantine measures. However, before adopting these measures it is essential to adequately understand the complex interaction among the host, parasite and environment, in order to identify key factors affecting parasite dynamics and to formulate a possible management strategy. Epidemiology provides key tools to advance our understanding of diseases and allows bringing convergence in controlling the disease. Compared to terrestrial diseases, relatively few epidemiological studies have been conducted to investigate aquatic animal diseases. For Argulus spp., the complex real-world dynamics of transmission, reproduction and the host specificity and the role of these parasites as a vector for various pathogens are very complex to develop an effective epidemiological framework. This review principally focuses on the application of epidemiological concepts, providing insights about the sampling frame, commenting upon the use of simple deterministic susceptible-infectedremoved models and examines the determinants of transmission and spread of argulosis. Further, this paper describes the risk factors associated with Argulus infestation and the importance of risk analysis in intervention against its epizootics. Overall, this review is intended to highlight the need for development of a more extensive epidemiological approach to combat argulosis in aquaculture.Saurav Kumar and T. Sathish Kumar have contributed equally to this work.
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is one of the most prevalent, widespread and devastating pathogen associated with shrimp population. The present study was aimed at screening the wild caught shrimps from Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) for WSSV infection. Shrimp samples of different penaeid species including and collected from nine different landing centers across the coast of ANI were screened for WSSV infection. Presence of white spots, a typical clinical sign of white spot disease was observed on the exoskeleton of WSSV infected shrimp samples. Out of 241 shrimp samples, 39 samples of were found positive for WSSV by nested PCR. Histopathological examination revealed eosinophilic to basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies in gill tissue which are typical characteristics of WSSV infection. Nucleotide sequence of WSSV isolated from ANI showed 100% identity to the sequences of WSSV reported from Thailand, Taiwan, China, Egypt, Mexico, Korea, France and 99% identity to WSSV reported from India. The detection of WSSV in wild of ANI further confirms the virus spread and biogeography.
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