This project was designed to establish the presence or absence of an oyster herpes virus and to determine the impact, if any, of the virus infection, on oyster culture. The rationale is to protect domestic oyster stocks if oyster herpes virus is not present or widespread in the United States at this time, and to formulate appropriate management if the infection is found in the United States. This rationale is based on the need to protect food oyster production from losses due to herpes infection, and to ensure that oyster seed producers in the United States are not disseminating a viral disease of potential aquacultural and ecological significance. If the Pacific oyster herpes virus is as virulent a pathogen, as claimed in the scientific literature, it could have a dramatic impact on the increasingly seed production dependent U.S. oyster industry.
The multi-institution project first validated and developed appropriate molecular methods for surveying U.S. oyster populations, on all coasts, for the presence of oyster herpes virus. During the first year of the study, multiple sites were surveyed and the virus was found in only one location, Tomales Bay, California. Continuing surveillance for the virus, using a sensitive polymerase chain reaction method, failed to detect its presence in any oyster populations on the East and Gulf Coast and in Washington, Oregon, Alaska or Hawaii.
The project focus shifted to the characterization of the extent of infected oysters and the impact on these oysters in Tomales Bay, California. The project funded a full time graduate student to perform a portion of the required studies. PhD candidate Colleen Burge, working with Carolyn Friedman at the University of Washington, was responsible for studies in Tomales Bay.
Publications and presentations of project results are available.