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Molecular detection of Megalocytivirus in guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
Ponnarasi Krishna Moorthy
Supervisor: Dr Sandra Catherine Zainathan
Bachelor of Science in Agrotechnology (Aquaculture)
School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences
Malaysia is one of the important freshwater ornamental fish exporters among the Asian
countries. The ornamental fish industry has been recorded as the fastest growing
industry in the agricultural sector and is developing in many of the Asian countries due
to its high demand in the domestic and international markets. Guppy (Poecilia
reticulata) is a native ornamental fish species in Malaysia and is one of the popular
fish traded in fish industry due to their hardy characteristic. Mortality cases involving
Poecilia reticulata has not been recorded in culture farms of Malaysia, but has been
prevailing at export locations. Thus, the aim of this project was to detect the
presence/absence of Megalocytivirus in Poecilia sphenops from Johor. Nested PCR
analysis was utilized to detect the presence of Megalocytivirus in Guppy (Poecilia
reticulata) from Senai, Johor. From a total of 25 P.reticulata samples, ISKNV was
detected in a pool of sample (n = 5) from internal organs at 20% of prevalence. All
the positive samples appeared to look healthy and did not show any clinical signs of
ISKNV. Sequence analysis of MCP gene showed 95% query cover and 97% similarities
respectively with Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV). Moreover,
phylogenetic analysis of MCP gene revealed that viruses from genus Megalocytivirus
is the closest to the ISKNV complete genome and can be classified into Megalocytivirus
genotype I.
528 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018