Abstract:
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) remains a major constraint to shrimp aquaculture, and water temperature can substantially affect infection outcomes. This review synthesizes experimental and application-oriented evidence on thermal intervention, with emphasis on mechanistic support levels, operational parameters, and practical boundaries across farming systems. We compared temperature setpoints, intervention timing and holding duration, heating patterns, water-quality context, and outcome metrics including viral load, survival/mortality, histopathology, and stress/immune indicators. Overall, a thermal window of 32-33 °C is most frequently associated with suppressed viral amplification and improved survival, yet the effects are strongly condition-dependent, being sensitive to host species and stage, temperature-time combinations, oxygen and nitrogenous wastes, and system controllability. Mechanistically, the most consistent causal support centers on host stress-associated factors (e.g., HSF1-HSP70-linked signaling) coupled with antiviral outcomes, whereas broader pathway-level claims require further validation under standardized heating protocols. Heating intervention should therefore be framed as a risk-management tool for replication suppression, viral-load reduction, and outbreak delay rather than assured pathogen eradication. Standardized infection models and multi-metric evaluation are recommended to define safe operable ranges and triggers and to support an operational workflow of monitoring-triggered heating, holding, recovery, and re-testing for practical biosecurity and health management.