Evaluation on prevention and treatment of cuminaldehyde in culture of shrimp against white spot syndrome virus

With the continuous expansion of cultural scale and the deterioration of cultural environment recently, various viral diseases occur frequently in cultured shrimp industry. White spot disease (WSD) caused by white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) results in a high mortality as well as a huge economic loss of shrimp culture. As a kind of Chinese herbal medicine extract, the application of cuminaldehyde in prevention and treatment of WSSV was investigated in this study. The data showed that cuminaldehyde at 40 μmol/L could significantly inhibit WSSV replication in shrimp within the highest inhibition rate of 89% at 72 hpi. The survival rate of WSSV-infected shrimp was increased by >50% after continuous treatment of cuminaldehyde versus the virus group at 144 hpi. Obviously, the horizontal transmission of WSSV was inhibited by cuminaldehyde in a static cohabitation challenge model, further weakening the spread of the virus to reduce the mortality of the virus-infected shrimp. Meanwhile, cuminaldehyde increased resistance of shrimp to WSSV by activating the innate immune response, which was essential for prevention of WSSV. Thus, cuminaldehyde could potentially be used as a therapeutic agent with a great potential in culture of shrimp seedling and may also be suitable for applications in pond aquaculture settings against WSSV transmission.