Kahuku shrimp farm follow-up tests negative for virus

HAWAII - A state quarantine order issued last week on a Kahuku shrimp farm is expected to be be lifted shortly after cleanup procedures and some additional testing have been completed at the farm.

Follow-up test results on Ming Dynasty Fish and Shrimp Co. are negative for the Taura syndrome virus (TSV), which is not harmful to humans. The negative test results issued by the Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory at the University of Arizona-Tucson were from shrimp that were being raised in a second pond and the hatchery.

Agriculture Department officials said today the order preventing Ming Dynasty Fish and Shrimp Co. from moving shrimp on or off the property without a permit will remain in effect until cleanup procedures and some additional testing have been completed at the farm.

Ming Dynasty Fish and Shrimp's farm is the only one in the Kahuku area that participates in the Aquaculture Development Program's shrimp surveillance and certification program, which certifies farms as "specific pathogen free."

Initial surveillance tests conducted in mid-March at the farm were positive for TSV, but appeared confined to one pond. Shrimp in that pond was harvested.

TSV is deadly to certain types of shrimp, but not harmful to humans.

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Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

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