Optimization of experimental infection protocols for the estimation of genetic parameters of resistance to White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) in Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei

Two infection protocols, individual oral (IO) and waterborne infection (WB), were evaluated to challenge Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei with White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV). Five different batches of full and half-sib families were infected experimentally and tested for growth performance under commercial growth conditions. The genetic variance for WSSV resistance was estimated using a linear sire–dam repeatability model that considers test-day survival as the dependent variable. The heritability estimates using the IO protocol ranged from 0.01 ± 0.00 to 0.02 ± 0.01, whereas the heritability estimates using the WB infection protocol were not significantly different from zero. The genetic correlations measured as the product moment correlation between full-sib family breeding values for resistance to WSSV and harvest body weight in ponds were unfavourable in three of the five batches and favourable in one of them. The dosage of WSSV was better controlled with IO oral infection than with other methods, with all animals being exposed to approximately the same risk of infection at the same time. This should improve the accuracy of the genetic parameters and hence improve the accuracy of the breeding values. It should, however, be noted that once the outbreak was established and the mortalities began, the shape and the magnitude of the slope of the mortality curves showed little difference in the infection pattern between batches irrespective of the dosage and infection protocol, and in most of the cases the cumulative mortality was greater than 80%. The main reason for this is probably the high densities of animals in the tanks needed for the genetic evaluations.