Detection of infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) in Litopenaeus vannamei by ramification amplification assay.

Infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) is a single-stranded DNA virus that causes developmental and growth abnormalities in Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (also known as Penaeus vannamei). Nucleic acid based methods such as in situ hybridization (ISH) and PCR have been commonly used for IHHNV detection. Ramification amplification (RAM), an isothermal nucleic acid amplification approach, was used in this study to detect IHHNV in L.