288-293Piscine nodavirus is the causative agent of viral encephalopathy and retinopathy in marine and freshwater fish worldwide. The present investigation was carried out to know the persistence and diversity of betanodavirus in wild healthy seabass seeds around east and west coasts of India from three major landing sites. The seeds obtained from two coasts were detected positive by nested PCR using RNA2 coat protein gene-specific primers. Phylogenetic analysis revealed all the three Indian coast sample sequences as close to Indian strain of betanodavirus reported earlier and those belong to red-spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV). These results indicate a strong latency or persistency of betanodavirus among wild healthy seeds of Asian seabass available along Indian coasts that remain as a source of viral inoculum for spreading disease in farm reared fish
