Efficacy of immunostimulant feed additive ShrimpGuard, for the preventive management of White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) infection in shrimps
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a virulent lethal viral pathogen affecting shrimp aquaculture worldwide. Current solutions for WSSV management can be divided into three categories; farm management, selective breeding or genetic engineering to get WSSV resistant varieties of shrimp, and developing vaccine or drug-like solutions specifically targeting WSSV. At present, farm management or good farming practice is the most reliable way of managing the problem, anti-WSSV vaccine, or anti-WSSV drugs that are reliable and scalable in the market are not available. We have developed a feed additive named "ShrimpGuard" using our SOLAQ (Solutions for Agriculture and Aquaculture) platform that specifically provides Shrimp protection against the WSSV infection. Here we report protection observed in both laboratory and farm demonstrations, in Penaeus vannamei. Collectively, these studies show that Shrimp-Guard does not cause any adverse effects on shrimp health and is able to provide significant protection to shrimp against WSSV infection. Briefly, the immune parameters of shrimp respond to ShrimpGuard treatment with increase observed in Total haemocyte count, and activity of prophenoloxidase. Further, survival rates of shrimp treated with ShrimpGuard after WSSV infection was between 80-100 % compared to 0% survival observed in untreated shrimp. The ShrimpGuards performance was tested in production farms and it was found that ShrimpGuard is safe for farm-based applications and the data obtained shows a positive impact on shrimp yield after ShrimpGuard treatment.