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OYSTER SHELLFISH DISEASE
At the Horn Point Laboratory
hatchery, Sea Grant has been responsible for large amounts
of seed for research: from 20 million (1997) to 75 million
(2002); with a new hatchery nearly completed, Sea Grant
hopes to produce 500 million spat a year.
More
Sea Grant Impacts…
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The Issue:
The problem of oyster disease began in 1956 on the East coast, when an
unknown parasite killed more than 90 percent of the oysters in Delaware
Bay. Early in the 1940s, oysters in the Gulf Coast began declining. Since
then, oysters on the East, West and Gulf coast have been declining due
to two types of fatalistic, parasitic diseases: Haplosporidium nelsoni,
which causes MSX disease, and Perkinsus marinus, which causes Dermo disease.
Sea Grant:
Sea Grant now administers the Oyster Disease Research Program (ODRP).
Through the ODRP, Sea Grant hopes to develop optimal strategies for managing
oyster disease, understand the process of parasitic infection, improve
the understanding of the oyster’s immune system; improve hatchery
techniques for producing disease-resistant strains, and develop molecular
tools to better monitor the onset and presence of disease.
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