SINGAPORE, June 29 -- What if fish could be vaccinated just by eating their feed?

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) are betting on exactly that to tackle a deadly virus threatening aquaculture stocks, The Straits Times reported today.

The team has developed an oral vaccine that can be mixed into fish feed to protect larvae and fingerlings, which are too small to be individually injected.

"Now, the fish will have the antibodies and so when the real virus hits, they will recognise this virus immediately and eliminate it," NUS biological sciences professor Yang Daiwen was quoted as saying.

The target is the nervous necrosis virus, a highly contagious infection that attacks the nervous system of fish and can wipe o...