On Thursday, October 19, Monserrat López, a research technician in the Pathology Laboratory at the Instituto de Investigación y Formación Agraria y Pesquera (IFAPA – Centro Auga del Pino), presented the most important results of her doctoral thesis in the talk titled “Molecular Characterization and Pathologies of Oysters from the Andalusian Atlantic Coast.”
Following the reopening in 2011 of the commercial exploitation of natural oyster beds along the Huelva coast, after 24 years of closure, it became necessary to determine the presence and distribution of the different oyster species and to establish an initial assessment of the health status of the natural oyster beds. This was especially urgent because the OsHV-1 µVar virus variant was spreading throughout Europe, and there was significant importation and movement of oyster spat within Andalusia.
In this context, Monserrat López, under the supervision of José Ignacio Navas Triano, an expert in bivalve mollusk diseases at IFAPA, and Dr. Roberto da Herrán from the Department of Genetics at the University of Granada, developed her doctoral thesis. The main objective was to evaluate and characterize the oyster populations along the Andalusian Atlantic coast and study their pathologies using histological and molecular techniques. Funded by IFAPA, the AGR-247 research group (IFAPA Centro Auga do Piñeiro, Huelva), and the HERPEMOL (funded by JACUMAR-MAGRAMA) and BONAQUA (FEDER) projects, Monserrat also investigated the prevalence and distribution of the protozoan Marteilia refringens, as well as the prevalence, distribution, and genetic variability of Ostreid herpesvirus 1 (OsHV-1) in the natural Andalusian oyster beds.
During the lecture, the speaker presented the most important results obtained in her thesis, as well as the additional work she carried out to complement her doctoral studies.
The lecture took place at 11:00 h in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Marine Sciences at the University of Vigo, was broadcast live at http://tv.uvigo.es/es/directo/1.html, and is available on UVigoTV.
Monserrat López’s presentation poster
Videoconference
