Experimental oral transmission of largemouth bass virus

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 (TCID₅₀) 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 TCID₅₀ g^?1) and were 10^5.2 TCID₅₀ 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.