A reo-like virus, CsRV1, is found in blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, from every North American location assessed, including Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, USA and associated with blue crabs in softshell production. CsRV1-associated crab mortality is prevalent in captive crabs, but it is still unknown how CsRV1 is transmitted. The purpose of this study was to examine the role that conspecific predation or scavenging may play in per os transmission in single exposure and repeated exposure experiments. For viruses without cell culture propagation, repeated exposure experiments have the challenge of presenting the virus consistently during the experiment and across time replicates. In a single-exposure experiment, none of the crabs fed muscle tissue of crabs carrying intense infections of CsRV1 developed CsRV1 infections. In a repeated-exposure trial, using infected muscle tissue prepared in alginate blocks, CsRV1 was detected in 11% of the crabs fed infected tissue but was not significantly different from the control group fed alginate lacking CsRV1. For repeated per os exposure experiments, the study demonstrated the utility of using alginate to present the same homogenous sample of virus, both injected and per os, over time for oral challenge experiments. Conspecific predation and scavenging could be a transmission route, but future work into this and other possible routes of transmission for CsRV1 is important to better understand the role this virus plays in wild crab populations and the soft-shell crab industry.

一种类似呼肠孤病毒的病毒，CsRV1，在北美每一个评估地点的蓝蟹（Callinectes sapidus）中都被发现，包括美国切萨皮克湾以及大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸，并且与软壳蟹生产中的蓝蟹有关。 CsRV1 相关的螃蟹死亡率在圈养螃蟹中普遍存在，但目前尚不清楚 CsRV1 是如何传播的。本研究的目的是探讨单次暴露和重复暴露实验中同种捕食或食腐在经口传播中可能发挥的作用。对于没有细胞培养繁殖的病毒，重复暴露实验面临着在实验期间和跨时间复制期间一致地呈现病毒的挑战。在单次暴露实验中，喂食携带 CsRV1 强烈感染的螃蟹肌肉组织的螃蟹均未出现 CsRV1 感染。在一项重复暴露试验中，使用藻酸盐块中制备的感染肌肉组织，在喂食感染组织的螃蟹中，有 11% 检测到了 CsRV1，但与喂食缺乏 CsRV1 的藻酸盐的对照组没有显着差异。对于重复的经口暴露实验，该研究证明了随着时间的推移，使用藻酸盐在口服攻击实验中提供相同的同质病毒样本（注射和经口）的效用。同种捕食和食腐可能是一种传播途径，但未来对 CsRV1 的这种传播途径和其他可能的传播途径的研究对于更好地了解这种病毒在野生蟹种群和软壳蟹产业中发挥的作用非常重要。