The availability of specific and rapid detection methods is essential for monitoring the health status of farmed species, particularly in viral diseases as in this case early diagnosis is a critical factor in containing disease outbreaks. Three complementary genome-based methods were developed for the detection of Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV), i.e. dot-blot hybridization, in situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Detection limits were established for dot-blot hybridization and RT-PCR and are c. 7 fg and 8 pg of viral RNA, respectively. In situ hybridization indicated that infection was confined to the striated muscle tissue. As a result of its sensitivity, RT-PCR can be used for in-depth investigations to examine the extent of the viral infection and establish the onset of infection in hatcheries. The application of RT-PCR on samples collected from prawn farms in China showed the possible use of this method in routine health monitoring.

An insertion sequence (IS) element of Bruceffa ovis, named IS6501, was isolated and its complete nucleotide sequence determined. IS6501 is 836 bp in length and occurs 20-35 times in the B. ovis genome and 5-15 times in other Brucella species. Analysis of the junctions at the sites of insertion revealed a small target site duplication of four bases and inverted repeats of 17 bp with one mismatch. IS6501 presents significant similarity (53.4%) with IS427 identified in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, suggesting a common ancestral sequence. A long ORF of 708 bp was identified encoding a protein with a predicted molecular mass of 26 kDa and sharing sequence identity with the hypothetical protein 1 of A. tumefaciens and with the transposase of Mycobactevium tuberculosis. IS6501 is present in all Bruceffa strains we have tested. Restriction fragment length polymorphism of reference and field strains of two species (B. mefitensis and B. ovis) was studied using either pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) on XbaI-digested DNA or hybridization of EcoRI-digested DNA using IS6501 as a probe. The genome of B. mefitensis biovar 3 contains about 10 IS copies per genome and field strains of the same species could not be distinguished either by IS hybridization or by XbaI (PFGE) restriction patterns. In contrast, the number of IS copies in the B. ovis genome is around 30 and the different field strains can be differentiated by both methods. As ISs have been shown to be implicated in chromosomal rearrangement, we propose that the chromosomal polymorphism revealed by PFGE and high copy number of IS6501 observed in B. ovis may be related to the presence of an active IS in this species.

White tail disease of the farmed freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, is the cause of mortalities in the French West Indies, China and India. Two different sized particles, both developing in the cytoplasm of target cells, are found associated with diseased animals. These two viruses were separated, purified and subsequently characterized. The larger one, called MrNV, is icosahedral in shape and 27 nm in diameter. Its genome is composed of two fragments of linear single-stranded RNA (ss-RNA), of 2.9 and 1.3 kb, respectively and its capsids exhibited a single polypeptide of 43 kDa. These characteristics and the partial sequence of a cloned fragment of RNA-1 suggest this agent is a member of the family Nodaviridae, but with differences from both the genera Alphanodavirus and Betanodavirus. The smaller virus, named XSV, is icosahedral in shape, 15 nm in diameter, possesses a linear ss-RNA genome of about 0.9 kb, and its capsid exhibits two polypeptides of 16 and 17 kDa, respectively. The relationships between these two viruses remain unknown.