Non‐destructive sampling methods offer practical advantages to detection and monitoring of viral pathogens in economically important farmed fish and broodstock. Here, we investigated whether blood, mucus and fin can be used as non‐lethal sample sources for detection of scale drop disease virus (SDDV) in farmed Asian sea bass, Lates calcarifer. Detection of SDDV was performed in parallel from three non‐destructive and seven destructive sample types, collected from both clinically sick fish and subclinical fish obtained from an affected farm. The results showed that SDDV was detectable in all 10 sample types with the percentage ranging from 20% to 100%. Blood was the best non‐destructive sample source exhibited by the fact that it yielded 100% SDDV‐positive tests from both sick (n = 12, 95% CI: 69.9–99.2) and clinically healthy fish (n = 4, 95% CI: 39.6%–97.4%) and is considered a “sterile” sample. This study also revealed concurrent infection of SDDV and two ectoparasites Lernanthropus sp. and Diplectanum sp., in all affected fish (n = 8, 95% CI: 46.7–99.3) during the disease outbreak. These ectoparasites also tested positive for SDDV by PCR, indicating that they were potential sample sources for PCR‐based detection of SDDV and possibly other viruses infecting Asian sea bass.

中文翻译：

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从亚洲鲈鱼，晚鳞鱼的无损样品和外寄生物中检测出鳞屑病病毒

无损采样方法为经济上重要的养殖鱼类和亲鱼中病毒病原体的检测和监测提供了实用优势。在这里，我们调查了是否可以将血液，粘液和鳍片用作非致命样本源，以检测养殖的亚洲鲈鱼（Lates calcarifer）中的鳞屑病病毒（SDDV）。SDDV的检测是从三种非破坏性样本和七种破坏性样本中并行进行的，这些样本均来自从患病农场获得的临床病鱼和亚临床鱼。结果表明，SDDV在所有10种样品中均可检测到，百分比范围为20％至100％。血液是最好的非破坏性样本来源，因为它从两个患病的人身上都获得了100％SDDV阳性检测结果（n  = 12，95％CI：69.9–99.2）和临床上健康的鱼类（n  = 4，95％CI：39.6％–97.4％），被认为是“无菌”样本。该研究还揭示了同时感染SDDV和两个体外寄生虫Lernanthropus sp。 在疾病暴发期间，所有受影响的鱼类（n = 8，95％CI：46.7–99.3）中都含有Diplectanum sp。和Diplectanum sp .。这些外寄生虫也通过PCR检测出SDDV阳性，表明它们是基于PCR的SDDV以及其他可能感染亚洲鲈鱼的病毒检测的潜在样品来源。