International Provision of Reference Materials for Diagnosis of Decapod Iridescent Virus 1(DIV1)

from OIE Reference Laboratory in NFQS to India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

National Fishery Products Quality Management Service (NFQS, Director General Yang Dong-yeob) designated as OIE Reference Laboratory1 for Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS) announced that reference materials as PCR positive control2, developed based on its patented technology3 from the OIE Reference Laboratory to diagnose an emerging disease for shrimp (Decapod Iridescent Virus 1, DIV14), were provided to other countries’ national laboratories for aquatic animal disease including Indonesia, India and Malaysia.

As DIV1 widely spread in large-scale shrimp farms of South-eastern Asia recently, OIE Aquatic Animal Committee and OIE Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific held a virtual meeting in August 2020 where they discussed the seriousness of DIV1 and diagnostic methods for the disease with 32 member countries. Many countries said in the meeting that they have difficulty for not having any reference materials to diagnose the disease and that immediate actions should be taken by OIE.

PCR positive control used for molecular biological methods (e.g. conventional PCR and real-time PCR) is normally made from the nucleic acid of the pathogenic agents. However, the outbreak situation of emerging diseases varies from country to country; laboratories around the world have different levels of capacity to obtain pathogenic agents and diagnose the emerging disease. So it means that securing reference materials as PCR positive control is essential for the diagnosis.

In this regard, Dr Hyoung Jun Kim, expert for the OIE Reference Laboratory of NFQS, introduced the reference materials for DIV1 that he developed based on his patented technology to diagnose the disease in the virtual meeting. The introduction was followed by the OIE Committee and many member countries requesting to share the reference materials.

NFQS gained the status of OIE Reference Laboratory for Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (VHS), which is one of the fish diseases; however, as the principle of gene detection methods is basically the same as many other pathogenic agents, the OIE Reference Laboratory managed to develop the technology of producing reference materials used for all pathogenic agents for OIE listed aquatic animal diseases.

DG Yang stated that, “The reference materials will hopefully contribute to preventing the spread of DIV1 that causes a lot of troubles across the globe. NFQS will actively collaborate with countries in need and take a lead in the international standards.”

1 OIE Reference Laboratory

OIE Reference Laboratories are designated to pursue all the scientific and technical problems relating to a named disease. The Expert, responsible to the OIE and its Member Countries with regard to the disease, should be a leading and active researcher helping the Reference Laboratory to provide scientific and technical assistance and expert advice on topics linked to diagnosis and control of the disease for which the Reference Laboratory is responsible.

2 Reference materials as PCR positive control

Reference material composed of chimeric plasmid DNA inserted with aftificially synthetic short DNA fragment including essential sequences for pathogen diagnosis, replacing positive controls that generally use pathogenic agent genome.

3 Patented technology (related articles)

H. J. Kim (2012) Improved diagnosis of spring viremia of carp by nested reverse-transcription PCR: Development of a chimeric positive control for prevention of false-positive diagnosis. Journal of Virological Methods, 185, 39-42.

H. J. Kim & S. R. Kwon (2014) Development of a rapid method for identifying carryover contamination of positive control DNA, using a chimeric positive control and restriction enzyme for the diagnosis of white spot syndrome virus by nested PCR. Indian Journal of Microbiology

4 Decapod Iridescent Virus 1(DIV1)

A new viral disease first outbreaked in China, 2014, occurring in decapod such as shrimp. The disease was designated to be quarantined in Korea since August 2020.