Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) or formerly known as early mortality syndrome (EMS) is an emerging disease that has caused significant economic losses to the aquaculture industry. The primary causative agent of AHPND is Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium that has gained plasmids encoding the fatal binary toxins Pir A/Pir B that cause rapid death of the infected shrimp. In this review, the current research studies and information about AHPND in shrimps have been presented. Molecular diagnostic tools and potential treatments regarding AHPND were also included. This review also includes relevant findings which may serve as guidelines that can help for further investigation and studies on AHPND or other shrimp diseases.
A unique strain of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (designated as VPAHPND) causes acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), a deadly bacterial disease associated with mass mortality in cultured shrimps since 2009. AHPND is responsible for severe economic losses worldwide, causing multimillion-dollar loss annually. Because of the rapid and high mortality rates in shrimps, substantial research has been carried out to develop rapid detection techniques. Also, recent technological advances such as the next-generation sequencing (NGS) have made it possible to elucidate relevant information about a pathogen in a single assay. This review summarizes the current research pertaining to VPAHPND, focusing on diagnosis and contribution of NGS technologies in the genomic studies of AHPND.