Ornamental fish testing project

Abstract

Biosecurity Australia commissioned a program of testing of goldfish, cichlids, gouramis and livebearers in quarantine. These species were identified as high risk in the 1999 Import Risk Analysis on Live Ornamental Finfish. In the program reported on here, these species were targeted for diagnostic testing when more than 25% of fish in a quarantine tank died during the quarantine period. Diagnostic testing usually involved post mortem, histology and bacteriology with provision for further confirmatory diagnosis as required. Participating diagnostic laboratories in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria were provided with details of basic disease testing procedures and requirements to ensure a consistent approach across all states. Procedures were agreed with AQIS and established nationally to supply targeted fish to the testing laboratories. One hundred cases were investigated from the five states. Victoria ha d the most submissions (43), followed by Queensland with 29 and Western Australia with 15. A bacterial cause was diagnosed in 26 cases and in 13 of these cases the bacterium was Aeromonas hydrophila or Aeromonas sp. 41 diagnoses of protistan and metazoan parasites were made and of these the greatest number were Monogenea (14 cases). There were eight reports of fungal involvement including seven cases of epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS). Viral aetiologies were listed in seven submissions. These included four cases of iridovirus in cichlids and one of haematopoietic necrosis virus in goldfish (GFHNV). Stress was reported as a contributing factor in at least 11 submissions. The large number of diagnoses of EUS, all in gouramis, and the four cases of iridovirus in cichlids is of concern. Surprisingly iridovirus was not diagnosed in gouramis during the survey despite most previous diagnoses of this virus in ornamental fish in Australia being in gourami