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Experimental oral transmission of largemouth bass virus
Author(s) -
Woodland J E,
Brunner C J,
Noyes A D,
Grizzle J M
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of fish diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1365-2761
pISSN - 0140-7775
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2761.2002.00418.x
Subject(s) - micropterus , bass (fish) , biology , iridovirus , virus , mucus , fishery , virology , ecology
Largemouth bass virus (LMBV) is a recently discovered iridovirus that causes a fatal disease of largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède). Fish can become infected by waterborne LMBV, but oral transmission of this virus has not been demonstrated previously. Largemouth bass were gavaged with guppies, Poecilia reticulata Peters, which had been injected with LMBV, and then sampled periodically during a 7‐week observation period. The dose of LMBV averaged 10 5.6 tissue culture infectious doses – 50% cytopathic endpoint (TCID 50 ) per largemouth bass. Five of 24 largemouth bass exposed to LMBV became infected with the virus, but none of the fish had clinical signs typical of LMBV disease. Virus titres in largemouth bass were highest in swim bladder (10 5.5–9.5 TCID 50 g −1 ) and were 10 5.2 TCID 50 g −1 or lower in cutaneous mucus, head kidney, trunk kidney, spleen, gonad and intestine. These results indicate that LMBV can be transmitted orally to largemouth bass, but further study is needed to determine the factors affecting pathogenicity of the virus.