Cell Culture Isolation of Piscine Nodavirus (Betanodavirus) in Fish-Rearing Seawater.

Piscine nodavirus (betanodavirus) is the causative agent of viral nervous necrosis (VNN) in a variety of cultured fish species, particularly marine fish. In the present study, we developed a sensitive method for cell culture isolation of the virus from seawater and applied the method to a spontaneous fish-rearing environment. The virus in seawater was concentrated by an iron-based flocculation method and subjected to isolation with E-11 cells. A real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assay was used to quantify the virus in water. After spiking into seawater was performed, a betanodavirus strain (red spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus [RGNNV] genotype) was effectively recovered in the E-11 cells at a detection limit of approximately 10(5)copies (equivalent to 10(2)50% tissue culture infective doses [TCID50])/liter seawater. In an experimental infection of juvenile sevenband grouper (Epinephelus septemfasciatus) with the virus, the virus was isolated from the drainage of a fish-rearing tank when the virus level in water was at least approximately 10(5)copies/liter. The application of this method to seven band grouper-rearing floating net pens, where VNN prevailed, resulted in the successful isolation of the virus from seawater. No differences were found in the partial sequences of the coat protein gene (RNA2) between the clinical virus isolates of dead fish and the cell-cultured virus isolates from seawater, and the viruses were identified as RGNNV. The infection experiment showed that the virus isolates from seawater were virulent to seven band grouper. These results showed direct evidence of the horizontal transmission of betanodavirus via rearing water in marine aquaculture.