“…This fish has become as one of the most important cultural fish species in China owing to its economic, ecological and nutritional contribution in aquaculture (Wang, Chen, Yang, Hou, He, Gu & Liu 2007;Qi, Guo, Xie, Wu, Lu, Duan & Zhou 2013;Wang, Han, Chen, Zhao & Hao 2014). However, the natural population resources of this fish declined sharply due to the water-pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction during the past decades (Hu, Zhou, Zhang, Zhao, Zhou, Xu, Shen & Huang 2003;Qi et al 2013;Qi, Qin & Xie 2015). Furthermore, fish diseases caused by viruses, bacteria and parasites have long been recognized as a significant constraint on aquaculture production, which also occurred in the aquaculture of topmouth culter (Verschuere, Rombaut, Sorgeloos & Verstraete 2000;Liu, He, Li & Yang 2006;Bondad-Reantaso 2007).…”