The need for further information to assist with the response to OsHV-1 is universally acknowledged by the aquaculture industry broadly, government agencies charged with biosecurity and aquatic animal health scientists in Australia and internationally.
Access to a standardised, reproducible and transferable laboratory infection model is critical to ongoing research efforts. Such a model provides a precise method of testing the effect of factors which are suspected to influence the outcome of an infectious challenge with OsHV-1 on Pacific oysters. The most promising factor for enabling continuation of Pacific oyster production despite the threat of OsHV-1 infection is the identification of genetic variation in susceptibility to POMS. The demand for efficient progress in selective breeding programmes requires a laboratory infection model which is suitable for screening large numbers of candidate families and provides results which can be reliably interpreted.