These data suggested that the silence of ferritin led to the increase of viral replication, indicating that ferritin silence increase the susceptibility of WSSV. Lastly, the effect of ferritin on the mortality of WSSV-infected shrimp was assessed High mortality rate of shrimp was observed in the group of ferritin knockdown compared with the control. However, the mortality rate of shrimp injected with ferritin protein was lower than that without ferritin protein.