According to the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) the white tail disease was caused by Machrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus. It said that the infection was found in the brood stock and F1 juveniles from aquaria ina research facility in Townsville. It is said that the wild brood stock were originally sourced from the Flinders River in North Queensland.
However, the source of the outbreak is still unknown. The OIE said there are no control measures to put in place and vaccination is prohibited. This disease also found in the fresh water prawn hatcheries at Nellore in India. Dr A S Sahul Hameed from the Aquaculture Division, Department of Zoology, at C. Abdul Hakeem College, Tamil Nadu, opined that as aquaculture expands and intensifies, more and more new diseases will emerge. He added that until recently Macrobrachium rosenbergii were regarded as disease resistant, but the report of white tail disease in freshwater prawn hatcheries and farms, sent shock waves through the prawn aquaculture industry in India.
Hameed told that experimental transmission of the disease was carried out in the healthy post-larvae and adult Macrobrachium rosenbergii by immersion and intramuscular injection, respectively with homogenized samples prepared from infected animals. Hameed informed that the cumulative mortality reached 100 per cent in post-larvae within four days. He said that there are no treatments to viral pathogens, the spread and impact of white tail disease can only be minimize by adopting better management practices in hatcheries and farms.
