Lobster Disease

October 7, 2009

A VIRUS IS ENDANGERING ONE OF FLORIDA’S TOP COMMERCIAL SEAFOOD SPECIES, THE CARIBBEAN SPINY LOBSTER. SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED THE PaV1 VIRUS IN 1999 AND ARE WORKING TO FIGURE OUT ITS ORIGIN AND HOW IT’S TRANSMITTED.

Don Behringer/ UF Program of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences: “That’s one of the 80 million dollar questions, where it initially came from. We know that it can be spread between lobsters. They can eat infected tissue and contract it that way. They can contract it through contact with other lobsters.”

SCIENTISTS WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA AND SEVERAL OTHER INSTITUTIONS HAVE BEEN AWARDED A GRANT OF MORE THAN A MILLION DOLLARS TO STUDY THE VIRUS. THE SPINY LOBSTER PROVIDES AN ANNUAL HARVEST OF MORE THAN 25-MILLION DOLLARS, BUT SINCE THE DISCOVERY OF THE VIRUS, FISHERIES HAVE SEEN A 30 PERCENT DECREASE OF LOBSTER.

Don Behringer/ UF Program of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences: “So they’re actually bringing it into the system from potentially other places in the Carribean so that may be the link that’s connecting all of these populations so that’s what we’re really going to focus on in this newly funded national science foundation study.”

THE SMALLER THE LOBSTER, THE QUICKER IT DIES BUT RESEARCHERS SAY IT DOESN’T SEEM LIKELY THAT LOBSTERS COULD BE WIPED OUT.