Dr. Kallaya Sritunyalucksana, Head of Shrimp-Virus Interaction Laboratory, has been awarded a grant of 3.45 million baht from Newton Institutional Links to establish an International Network for Shrimp Health (INSH) aiming to link leading research laboratories in the UK and Thailand with government and industry stakeholders in order to meet the needs for rapid access to pathogen detection and surveillance services. This will have an immediate impact on the control and spread of newly emerging diseases. The project will be co-led by Prof. Grant D. Stentiford, Team Leader of the Pathology and Molecular Systematics Team at Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) in the UK.
INSH will carry out solutions-oriented research to manage urgent emergent disease problems in the shrimp industry as well as
translate basic research on shrimp pathogens to development and deployment of rapid diagnostic tools that can be used by the farmer, scientist and Competent Authority for disease detection and management. In addition to BIOTEC and Cefas, collaborators in this project include the Faculty of Science of Mahidol University, the Department of Fisheries Thailand, the Thai Marine Shrimp Farmers Association and the University of Exeter. Over the course of 2 years of this project, the disease problems to be of focus include Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP), white feces syndrome (WFS) and infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV).
Newton Institutional Links provides grants for the development of research and innovation collaborations between the UK and partner countries. The program in Thailand is funded by the British Council and the Thailand Research Fund (TRF).