Articles of Significant Interest Selected from This Issue by the Editors

摘要

Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) of shrimp is caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates that harbor a pVA1 plasmid encoding toxins PirAVp and PirBVp (VPAHPND). The toxins cause death by massive sloughing of hepatopancreatic tubule epithelial cells (pathognomonic AHPND lesions). Phiwsaiya et al. (e00680-17) report a natural V. parahaemolyticus ΔpirAVp pirBVp+ mutant which killed ～50% of shrimp but produces neither PirVp toxins nor AHPND lesions. Such isolates may cause a portion of the mortality in early mortality syndrome-affected ponds that is not ascribed to VPAHPND. Thus, they pose an additional threat to shrimp farmers that would be missed by current testing for VPAHPND.