Summer Syndrome in Litopenaeus stylirostris in New Caledonia:: Pathology and epidemiology of the etiological agent, Vibrio nigripulchritudo

The Summer Syndrome is a new shrimp disease that has been affecting a shrimp growout farm in New Caledonia since end of 1997. It was recognized to be caused by a systemic vibriosis due to Vibrio nigripulchritudo. This new disease turned out almost immediately enzootic in the shrimp farm involved and has affected all its crops ever since. Since the year 2000, V nigripulchritudo strains have been found in several shrimp farms, although Summer Syndrome is still limited to one particular area, affecting, since 2003, two adjoining farms. As part of a multidisciplinary research program, a high-frequency survey was carried out during the summer 2002-2003 in two shrimp farms: one affected farm and another one in which pathogenic strains could be isolated but without any disease event. It permitted a good description of V nigripulchritudo dynamics in shrimp and the ecosystem in both farms. The study of virulence characteristics of some isolates showed that pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains occur in the shrimp farms environment and that both may be found at the same time in one farm. Our results strongly suggest a persistence of pathogenic strains in wet zones of the pond sediment at low concentrations between crops in the affected farm, and their development during the rearing cycle as a cause of shrimp infection. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.