Detection of IHHN virus in shrimp tissue by digital color correlation

Shrimp culture has suffered from disease outbreaks that significantly affect the economy and restrain aquaculture production in many countries around the world. For research and diagnosis of shrimp diseases, histopathology is a powerful tool to identify pathogens and to understand the cellular, tissue and organ changes that result as a consequence of disease. One problem of the technique is that it requires considerable time, although shrimp producers demand results in the shortest possible time in order to take preventive or control measures. The introduction of techniques, such as processing of digital images in histopathology, could significantly reduce the time for precise diagnosis. Here, we present an attempt to implement this technique with infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) because it presents difficulties for diagnosis by conventional histological techniques. In order to determine the viral histopathology that could be identified with the digital color correlation in different tissues, some very clear and conventional Cowdry type A inclusion bodies (CAIs) were selected. It was demonstrated that color digital correlation can be used to detect the virus IHHN in shrimp tissues. More researches are needed to be done, which consider several aspects, Like rotation, scale, color, natural morphology of the virus and the use of different kinds of filters to determine whether the technique can be applied to other viruses. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.