A deadly virus has been detected off Kamchatka's shores in clipped crabs

Ученые Национального научного центра морской биологии им. A.V. Zhirmunsky FEB RAS and the Kamchatka branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) have identified a new virus in claw crabs in Kamchatka that can strongly affect their numbers.

The new virus was labeled CbBV. According to the specialists' study on the website of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, published on November 22, the virus causes a syndrome of milky hemolymph in the marine inhabitants.

Samples of crabs with external signs of milk hemolymph syndrome disease, which were collected by researchers in the shelf zone of the Pacific coast of Kamchatka, showed that the infection is caused by a bacilliform enveloped virus.

The DNA sequence of CbBV, which is significantly different from the genome of the white spot syndrome virus, pointed scientists to the need to identify it as a new virus.

Earlier, on November 19, an international team of scientists created a material capable of inhibiting the activity of viruses. The development could be used, for example, to filter water from bacteria and viruses to make it suitable for drinking, or as a barrier material in medicine.