The history of the emergence of viruses in Australian prawn aquaculture

Early in Australia's prawn aquacultural history it was very clear that all viruses in aquaculture had been preceded by their discovery in the wild prawns from the fishery. During the farming intensification process, it was also very clear that the housing of spawners from the fishery was providing evidence of potential problems. There is no evidence that there has been any introduction of viruses novel to Australia, but rather the viruses have been always present in the wild prawns awaiting a chance to be amplified by the increasing population density of aquaculture. The information on prawn viruses adds weight to the view that Australia's marine disease faunas are part of the greater Asian area. However, there is some evidence that some of the Australian strains are, in all probability, different.