Crawf ishes ( Cambarus proclarkii ) as animal were infected with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) for studying various infection characters, including temperature, transfer route, successive infection, median lethal dose ( LD50) , immunity against virus and virus conservation etc. The results showed crawf ishes usually died in 2 - 7d after infection at the temperature of 22- 25 .. , in 2- 10d at 15- 19 .. , in 3- 13d at 8- 10 .. and 2- 6d at 30- 32 .. . Below 5 .. , the infected crawf ishes could remain active for more than one month. By injecting and oral feeding, WSSV could infected crawfishes successfully and there was no significant difference between muscle injection and hypoderm injection. Soaking with WSSV failed to infect crawfishes. Bacteria examination in healthy and diseased crawfishes showed Enterobacter cloacae in the heart and hepatopancreas multiplied 25 and 30 times respectively , indicating that bacteria successive infect ion existed during the virus infection. The LD50 was 10 - 6. 5..mL - 1 WSSV. Crawfishes which were immunized with WSSV inactivated at 56 .. for 30min could not obtain immunity protection from. WSSV f rom homogenate stored at - 30 .. for 1 year could not be recovered but f rom crawfishes stored at - 30 .. for 1 year could be recovered successfully.