Australian bass Macquaria novemaculeata susceptibility to experimental megalocytivirus infection and utility as a model disease vector.

Megalocytiviruses, particularly red seabream iridovirus, infect a broad range of fish including both freshwater and marine species. Although a limited number of infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) strains have been reported in association with mortality events in marine aquaculture species, the potential host range for ISKNV strains, particularly of those that have been detected in ornamental fish, has not been well characterised. There have also been few reports on the susceptibility of euryhaline fish species that could potentially transmit megalocytiviruses between freshwater and marine environments. We found that the euryhaline Australian native percichthyid fish, Australian bass Macquaria novemaculeata, is susceptible experimentally to ISKNV (strain DGIV-10), obtained from a freshwater ornamental fish, dwarf gourami Trichogaster lalius. Australian bass developed clinical disease following direct inoculation and also following cohabitation with infected fish, and were able to transmit DGIV-10 to naïve Murray cod Maccullochella peelii. This study demonstrated the potential for a euryhaline species to become infected with, and transmit, the megalocytivirus ISKNV between fish populations.