Vet World   Vol.13   November-2020  Article-37

Megalocytiviruses in ornamental fish: A review

Background and Aim: Iridoviruses, especially megalocytiviruses, are related to severe disease resulting in high economic losses in the aquaculture industry worldwide. The ornamental fish industry has been affected severely due to Megalocytivirus infections. Megalocytivirus is a DNA virus that has three genera; including red sea bream iridovirus, infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus, and turbot reddish body iridovirus. Megalocytivirus causes non-specific clinical signs in ornamental fish. Cell culture, histology, immunofluorescence test, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay have been used to diagnose megalocytiviruses. Risk factors such as temperature, transportation (export and import), and life stages of ornamental fish have been reported for the previous cases due to Megalocytivirus infections. In addition, other prevention and control methods also have been practiced in farms to prevent Megalocytivirus outbreaks. This is the first review of megalocytiviruses in ornamental fish since its first detection in 1989. This review discusses the occurrences of Megalocytivirus in ornamental fish, including the history, clinical signs, detection method, risk factors, and prevention measures.

Keywords: clinical signs, detection, Megalocytivirus, ornamental fish, risk factors.

How to cite this article: Johan CAC, Zainathan SC (2020) Megalocytiviruses in ornamental fish: A review, Veterinary World, 13(11): 2565-2577.

Received: 09-07-2020  Accepted: 19-10-2020     Published online: 30-11-2020

Corresponding author: Sandra Catherine Zainathan   E-mail: sandra@umt.edu.my

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2565-2577

Copyright: Johan CAC and Zainathan, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.