THE key to the control of vibriosis, the disease that has inflicted much damage to the multi- million peso tiger prawn industry in the country, has been found by a biology professor from the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Vibriosis has caused the downfall of the shrimp industry in the Philippines as well as in other Asian countries. The bacterium Vibrio harveyi has been implicated as the cause of vibriosis.

Dr. Prima Fe T. Franco, with the collaboration of Dr. Cynthia T. Hedreyda of the UP National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Diliman, Quezon City, studied the genes and protein implicated in the pathogenecity of Vibrio harveyi, especially toxR, in order to gain insights on its disease-causing mechanisms.

A paper on this research, which was published in the Journal of General and Applied Microbiology, first won the Zonal CHED (Commission on Higher Education) Research and Publication (or Republica) Award for Regions 1, 2 and CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region) with a cash prize of PhP50,000. Subsequently, it won the countrywide CHED Republica Award for Natural Sciences with a cash prize of PhP100,000 and another PhP100,000 to cover expenses for in-country lecture tour or conduct of national interactive seminar.

Results of the study show for the first time that it is now possible to obtain the complete toxR sequence of Vibrio harveyi NBRC 15634 using some primers and also provide the basic knowledge needed for the molecular surveillance scheme in vibriosis control in tiger prawns.

This knowledge makes it possible to differentiate at the molecular level the pathogenic strain of Vibrio harveyi from the non-pathogenic strain.

It is hoped that this breakthrough would ultimately bring back the shrimp industry as a multi-billion peso industry.-SMP

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