Researchers at the University of Arizona are having problems creating a reliable diagnostic test for early mortality syndrome (EMS) due to the similarity of the EMS-causing bacteria to many others in the marine environment.
"We have been working very hard on getting a reliable diagnostic test for EMS/AHPNS to market, but unfortunately we are working with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which is very common in the marine environment, so first we have to figure out what genetic element is different in this Vibrio," wrote Linda Nunan, an assistant staff scientist at Donald Lightner's shrimp pathology laboratory at The University of Arizona, on The Shrimp List -- a mailing list for the shrimp farming industry.
Nunan said she has an experimental PCR test that detects the strain in both Asia and Mexico broth cultures, but she is still in the process of validating it, and did not feel comfortable releasing a protocol that may cross react with non-EMS causing Vibrios.
