Blue crabs Callinectes sapidus as potential biological reservoirs for white spot syndrome virus (WSSV).

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a virulent pathogen of cultured shrimp and was first detected in farms in South Carolina (USA) in 1997 and subsequently in wild shrimp in 1999. We screened groups of 1808 wild Atlantic white shrimp Litopenaeus setiferus and 300 blue crabs Callinectes sapidus collected from South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for the presence of WSSV using the Shrimple® immunoassay-strip test, with all positives and random subsets of negatives tested by TaqMan real-time PCR and in infectivity bioassays. Of 87 shrimp and 11 crabs that tested positive using the Shrimple® test, only a single C. sapidus was confirmed to be infected with WSSV by PCR and the infectivity bioassay. The data indicate that the prevalence of WSSV in these species is low in these southeastern US regions, but that C. sapidus may serve as a biological reservoir.

Multiple congenital cardiac abnormalities in an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

Necropsy of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) neonate that stranded dead on Folly Beach, Charleston County, South Carolina, USA, on 17 November 2007, revealed multiple congenital heart malformations. Cardiac anomalies included a hypertrophic right ventricle, ventricular septal defect (VSD), aortic dilation, atrial septal defect (ASD) between a functionally common atrium and a left atrial remnant, subvalvular pulmonic stenosis, and a hypoplastic pulmonary artery and mitral valve. Few incidences of abnormal cardiac development in cetaceans have been published. The case study serves to document a novel congenital heart malformation not previously reported, to our knowledge, in free-ranging bottlenose dolphins.