aquaculturehealth - Montana Water Center - Montana State University

LABORATORY
THE EXCELLENCE OF VIRGINIA’S
SHELLFISH PATHOLOGY CENTRE
BY DR EUGENE BURRESON (SHELLFISH PATHOLOGY LABORATORY, VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCES, USA)
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) was
established in 1940 as an agency to provide scientific advice to
the state of Virginia as it related to the Chesapeake Bay and
coastal waters.
Since its earliest beginnings, VIMS has had a long history of
research in bivalve mollusc diseases. Early researchers Dr Jay
Andrews and Dr Frank Perkins provided fundamental
knowledge on the morphology and biology of the important
oyster pathogens Perkinsus marinus, Haplosporidium nelsoni and
Haplosporidium costale.
Both scientists also worked closely with the Virginia Marine
Resources Commission, the local management agency, to develop
methods to assist the oyster industry in managing around the
diseases. Dr Andrews initiated a disease-monitoring programme in
1960 that continues to this day, and has provided fundamental
knowledge on climate impacts on pathogen abundance and
allowed a predictive capability of annual disease severity.
Today, the VIMS Shellfish Pathology Laboratory (SPL) maintains
a broad research programme in parasitology, which encompasses P
marinus and Haplosporidium species, Bonamia and Marteilia species
and the clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) parasite QPX. The
programme is fundamentally directed toward health management in
molluscan populations in both aquaculture and restoration contexts.
VIMS has always had an academic affiliation with the College of
William and Mary; in 1979 the institute was disbanded as a state
agency and fully merged with the college, while retaining the title
VIMS SPL STAFF FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: NANCY STOKES,
DR RYAN CARNEGIE, SUSAN DENNY, KRISTI HILL, DR KIM REECE, RITA CROCKET,
DR GENE BURRESON (BACK), AND DR CORINNE AUDEMARD
and advisory mandates of VIMS. The academic programme at
VIMS is the School of Marine Science of the College of William
and Mary, and is strictly a graduate programme.
FACILITIES
The VIMS SPL, housed within the Department of Environmental
and Aquatic Animal Health, has a necropsy laboratory, a fully
equipped histopathology centre with an automated tissue processor
and slide stainer, and a fully functional molecular laboratory with
platforms for both standard and real-time PCR as well as DNA
sequencing. Microscope resources include multi-headed microscopes
for consultation and teaching, an epifluorescent microscope for
fluorescent in situ hybridisation, and a high-resolution imaging
system for image capture and analysis. The VIMS SPL also has access
to both scanning and transmission electron microscopes and
running seawater laboratories for experimental work.
REGIONAL DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES
Because of the lack of commercial marine finfish or crustacean
aquaculture in the region, diagnostic services have long focused on
diseases of oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and hard clams
(Mercenaria mercenaria).
4 AQUACULTURE HEALTH INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2006