shrimp virus in texas

[Donald Chen - Microbiology]

Hi

I posted this question to the general newsgroup and was pointed here
for a possible answer.  A couple of  weeks ago, the NYTimes had an
article about the deaths of shrimp in hatchery farm from a virus
which the article did not identify.  It was mentioned that the virus
was probably from Equador which experienced an epidemic about three
years ago.  My question:  Is this virus related to the penaed (sp?)
baculovirus which has been affecting shrimp farms in Southeast Asia?
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Also, the article says that biologists down there do not believe that
this virus can spread to the local Gulf Coast shrimp. Is this because
of host specificity -eg like the many lepidopteran baculoviruses?
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Any help will be appreciated.

Don Chen
College of Veterinary Medicine
Oregon State University