What is the News?
Mud Crab Reovirus (MCRV) has been found to be the reason for the mass mortality of wild crab in Andhra Pradesh State.
What is Mud Crab Reovirus (MCRV)?
Mud Crab Reovirus (MCRV) is also known as Sleeping Disease. The virus belongs to the “Reoviridae” family.
| Note: Reoviridae is a family of double-stranded RNA viruses. This virus has a wide host range including vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, protists and fungi. |
The virus mainly infects connective tissue cells of the hepatopancreas, gills and intestine in mud crabs.
What is Mud Crab?
Scylla serrata commonly known as the Mud crab, Green crab or Mangrove Crab is an economically important species of crab found in the estuaries and mangroves of India.
There has been a huge interest in the aquaculture of this species due to their high demand/ price, high flesh content and rapid growth rates in captivity.
In India, crab culture is developing very fast in the states of AP, Kerala, West Bengal and Odisha.
Source: This post is based on the article ‘Reovirus wreaks havoc on wild crab cultivation in Andhra Pradesh’ published in The Hindu on 7th Jan 2022.
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