title: Detection and genetic analysis of aquabirnaviruses in subclinically infected aquarium fish.
abstract: Aquabirnaviruses (ABVs) cause serious diseases in a variety of fish species used worldwide in aquaculture and have been isolated from a variety of healthy fish and shellfish species. The type species of ABV is Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), which is the causative agent of a highly contagious disease in juvenile salmonid fish. Marine birnaviruses (MABVs) have been isolated from various marine fish and shellfish. In Korea, ABV infection has been identified in several fish and shellfish. The current study presents sequence data from nested polymerase chain reaction products of 3 ABV strains obtained from different species of asymptomatic aquarium fish collected from a private commercial aquarium in Korea. Phylogenetic analysis of these strains, based on the partial nucleotide sequence of the VP2/NS junction, placed them within the genogroup VII (95-99% bootstrap confidence), which also contains MABV. The subclinically infected fish may be a source of MABV infection for other susceptible fish species inside the aquarium and potentially represent a serious challenge for the management of MABV infections. Additionally, the presence of MABV in these subclinically infected aquarium fish imported from other countries indicates that there is a need for the establishment of appropriate quarantine practices.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. parksec@snu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Sang Phil
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Dennis Kaw
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Ji Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Casiano Hermorpia
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Choresca
authors.forename: Jee Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Jin Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Se Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018175:Birnaviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D005399:Fishes; D018061:Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins