| Yellow head virus | |
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| Yellow head virus virion | |
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| Yellow head virus genome | |
Virus classification 
| |
| (unranked): | Virus |
| Realm: | Riboviria |
| Kingdom: | Orthornavirae |
| Phylum: | Pisuviricota |
| Class: | Pisoniviricetes |
| Order: | Nidovirales |
| Family: | Roniviridae |
| Genus: | Okavirus |
| Subgenus: | Tipravirus |
| Species: | Yellow head virus
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Yellowhead disease (YHD) is a viral infection of shrimp and prawn, in particular of the giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), one of the two major species of farmed shrimp. The disease is caused by the Yellow head virus genotype 1 (YHV1), a positive-strand RNA virus related to coronaviruses and arteriviruses.
The disease is highly lethal and contagious, killing shrimp quickly. Outbreaks of this disease have wiped out in a matter of days the entire populations of many shrimp farms that cultivated P. monodon, i.e. particularly Southeast Asian farms. In Thai, the disease is called hua leung.[1] A closely related virus is the Gill-associated virus (GAV).[2]
- ^ Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission: Non-Native Species Summaries: Yellowhead Virus (YHV) Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, 2003. Accessed June 30, 2005.
- ^ "ICTV Report Roniviridae".