Chinese scientists said on January 11 they became the first in the world to determine the genetic makeup of a fatal prawn virus responsible for a drastic reduction in prawn production in China and other parts of Asia over the past few years.

They said the sequencing of the virus's genome, or its genetic material, will help scientists develop diagnostic tools and drugs against the leukodermal bacilliform virus, the largest known animal virus.

The virus has been responsible for outbreaks of a contagious disease in the past few years, resulting in devastating losses in Asia's prawn farms.

Xu Xun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said he and his colleagues with the No. 3 Institute under the State Oceanic Administration, determined for the first time in the world some of the genetic material of the virus, and sequenced 90 percent of the virus' genetic code in 1997.

They finished the sequencing work last June, saying that information available to them has shown they are far ahead of their international counterparts, who have sequenced only one percent of the virus' genome.

The research began in 1994 with funding from the State Oceanic Administration, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Fujian Provincial Government and the State Human Genome Northern Center.

The scientists said they are in the process of applying for a patent for the sequencing. (Xinhua)