Oysters from the Clyde River on the New South Wales far south coast are being used to try and 'trick' their central coast cousins into developing immunity to Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS).

POMS is a disease which has caused major problems on oyster beds on the central coast of NSW.

So far, the Clyde River Pacific Oyster has not been affected by the disease.

In the latest attempt to manage POMS, researchers from Sydney's Institute of Marine Sciences plan to inject a vaccine into the abductor muscle of the Clyde River Pacific Oysters.

"We think that by stimulating a really vigorous anti-viral response in the adult oyster, some of those anti-viral compounds will be retained in the oyster's eggs and then be transferred on to the next generation," explained the Institute's Dr Tim Green.

Clyde River Pacific Oysters are not used for breeding, and so this part of the three-year project is to determine the oyster's response to the injections.

The work will be carried out at the marine sciences institute to avoid the possibility of the disease being inadvertently released into southern estuaries.

Like many discoveries, this approach to understanding POMS came about by accident.

"It was just through coincidence. We were trying to identify the anti-viral systems in oysters and we happened to inject the oysters with a synthetic anti-viral analogue," said Dr Green

"We were quite surprised when we observed that all the oysters became resistant to the disease when we challenged them."

A 10 per cent increase in survival rate is the target.

"Although this sounds quite a small number, that would be a big step in one generation of improvement. And by injecting a few brood stock oysters prior to spawning, the potential to produce millions of offspring cost-effectively would be very advantageous," said Dr Green.