Detection of infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) in Litopenaeus vannamei shrimp cultured in South Korea

In October 2010, cuticular deformities with abnormal growth suppression were detected among cultured Litopenaeus vannamei shrimp in one farm located on the Taean peninsula along the western coast of Korea. We detected infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) from the moribund L. vannamei shrimp and its pond water via PCR assays. The IHHNV strain isolated from the shrimps was designated K1 and the strain isolated from the pond water was designated K2, and the capsid genes were sequenced for genetic comparison and phylogenetic analysis with others obtained from different geographical regions. The results demonstrated that the Korean strains were similar to infectious IHHNV and were closely related to the Type 1 strains. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, of the detection of IHHNV from L. vannamei in Korean cultured shrimp.