• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2003

The high mortality of cultured juvenile turbot, Scophthalmus maximus occurred in Gochang on June, 2003. The diseased fish was lethargic with reduced feed intake. Grossly, these fish showed pale body, abdominal extension and exophthalmia. The dominant internal gross features of diseased fish were severely enlarged spleen, pale gills and/ or liver. Diseased fish histologically showed basophilic enlarged cells in the kidney, spleen, gill, heart, stomach, intestine, liver, pancreas and adipose tissue. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveled hexagonal virions in the cytoplasm of necrotic cells. The viral particles lead a central electron-dense core and an electron translucent zone, and were 136-159 nm in diameter. These results suggest that the virus belonging to the iridoviridae was responsible for the mortality of cultured juvenile turbot.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2016

In this study, disease surveillance was performed to monitor the prevalence of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) and red seabream iridovirus (RSIV) in olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus in 2015. The fish samples were collected in March (60 farms), May (55 farms) and July (52 farms) from different farms in Jeju. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (VHSV) or PCR (RSIV) results showed that VHSV detected in 2 farms, but RSIV has not been detected in any farms. The sequences of the nucleocapsid protein (N) and glycoprotein (G) gene of the 2 VHSV isolates were successfully sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was included VHSV isolates reported here together with a representative VHSV isolates available in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that most of Korea VHSV isolates were closely related to the Japan and China genotype IVa which is clearly distinct from the North American genotype IVb.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.582-588
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• 2013

The impact of global warming on aquatic systems has been a priority research area in the past decade. However, the possibility that increased temperatures will cause shifts in viral disease outbreaks has not been well addressed. In the present study, with increasing water temperature (WT) in the coastal area of Korea, we estimated the possibility of changes in fish viral diseases. From the present time, WT may rise between 0.62 and $1.7^{\circ}C$ by 2050, and the effect on aquaculture could be more adverse than benefitial. Red seabream iridovirus disease (RSIVD) and viral nervous necrosis (VNN) cause high mortality above 22 and $24^{\circ}C$, respectively, and outbreaks could commence earlier and persist for prolonged periods. Nevertheless, the period of occurrence of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), which outbreaks at a lower WT (< $18^{\circ}C$), could be shorter than the current infectious period. Thermal stress in fish causes reductions in growth and immunocompetence; thus, increases in summer WT can lead to the development of new viral diseases. WT has a strong influence on fish population dynamics; therefore, entry of new viruses and changes in the prevalence of infection can be expected if carrier fishes are introduced or migrate to Korean waters.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1184-1193
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• 2015

Monitoring for megalocytivirus infection was conducted for ten months from March to December in 2013 in 15 aquatic farms culturing, red sea bream, rock bream, rock fish and black sea bream around Tongyoung coastal area in Korea, to assess spatial and temporal variability of detection prevalence, and to explore possible links with seawater temperature. In nested-PCR targeted major capsid protein (MCP) gene, asymptomatic megalocytivirus infection was detected in the externally healthy farmed fish with a significant prevalence in range from 0 to 58.3% for ten months. Higher prevalence of megalocytivirus (46.7% - 57.1%) was observed in high water temperature season from September to November than that in other months with lower prevalence of 0.0% to 20.0%. Even though an acute infection of megalocytivirus was occurred in rock bream (positive in the first PCR) with high mortality in one of fifteen farms, there was no expansion or transmission of the disease to the rock fish and red sea bream culturing in net cage just proximal to the rock bream cage in which disease outbreaked. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned MCP gene isolated asymptomatically infected rock fish revealed that the megalocytivirus in this study was clustered together with the rock bream iridovirus (RBIV) under the subgroup II of the genus megalocytivirus (Iridoviridae), which is known to be the major megalocytivirus strain in Korea. The typical histopathological signs were not found in the spleen of rock fish asymptomatically infected by megalocytivirus. Experimental infection of rock bream with the spleen homogenate of the rock fish infected asymptomatically did not induce any mortality unlike the homogenate of infected rock bream with hih mortlity. However, these results may suggest that the asymptomatic infection of megalocytivirus in other fish species can be a potential risk threatening aquaculture industries as a transmission factor of megalocytivirus to susceptible fish species, especially rock bream.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.163-171
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• 2013

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most rapid and widely used method to detect viral pathogens. However, this method does not provide histopathologic nature of the virus. In situ hybridization (ISH) with oligonucleotide probes is attractive because it is a rapid method for detection and identification of viral pathogens at sites of tissue infection. In order to understand the histopathologic characterictics of Red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV), viral-hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) virus and viral nervous necrosis (VNN) virus to cultured olive flounder, we her applied ISH method to various kinds of olive flounder tissues with PCR-positive for these three viruses. We found that these viruses showed different tissue tropism and were detected from different cell types. Our results suggest that ISH is useful not only in rapid detection of viral pathogens but also in understanding the histopathologic characters of specific viral pathogens.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2018

Rock bream iridovirus (RBIV) is a megalocytivirus widely infected in various fish species in Korea, causing symptoms of acute inflammation and enlargement of spleen. In our previous study, RBIV induced the initial upregulation but later down-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines and IFN1 gene expression. Signal transducers and activators of transcriptions (STAT) are transcription factors involved in the regulation of immune genes including IFNs. This study was conducted to analyse the expression of STAT2. The expressional study of STAT2 gene was performed in head kidney and spleen upon RBIV infection and immune stimulants like LPS or poly I:C in vitro. Consequently, STAT2 gene expression pattern was different in head kidney and spleen as it was significantly up-regulated by LPS from 4 h to 8 h but down-regulated at 24 h while up-regulated by poly I:C at 8 h in head kidney while, in spleen, STAT2 gene expression was down regulated by LPS but significantly up-regulated by poly I:C. Upon RBIV stimulation, STAT2 gene expression was significantly down-regulated by high dose RBIV at 4 h but up-regulated at 8 h and 24 h in head kidney. In spleen cells, it was up-regulated by medium dose RBIV at 4 h and by high dose RBIV at 4 h and 8 h but down regulated later then. In vivo, STAT2 gene expression was not significantly affected by RBIV infection while significant up-regulated by vaccination at day 7 post-vaccination, indicating STAT2 gene can be involved in adaptive immune response in rock bream.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.474-482
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• 2019

Disease monitoring in wild aquatic animals is necessary to obtain information about disease occurrence, disease agents, and the transmission of diseases between wild and cultured species. In this study, we monitored viral diseases in wild marine fish and crustacea caught by trawl in Korea in April and October 2018. We monitored the viral diseases in 977 fish from 39 different species and 287 crustacea from 14 different species. In fish, we collected kidney and spleen to detect viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV), marine birnavirus (MABV), hirame rhabdovirus (HRV), and lymphocystis disease virus (LCDV). In crustacea, we monitored white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV), taura syndrome virus (TSV), infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV), yellowhead disease virus (YHDV), and white tail disease virus (WTDV) using pleopods, pereiopods, gills, muscle, and hepatopancreases. Although none of the viral diseases tested in this study were detected in the samples, these results will help disease control between aquaculture species and wild aquatic animals.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2010

The epidemiological study was performed to survey the prevalence of fish pathogens in cultured olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus from 2005 to 2007. In this study, the fish pathogens were detected from 1,528 among 2,238 fish samples collected yearly in 5 sites from February, May, August and November. Annual incidences for three years show a yearly increase and there were 60.6% in 2005, 66.7% in 2006 and 72.3% in 2007, respectively. Seasonal prevalence was 63.5% in February, 67.4% in May, 75.1% in August and 64.4% in November for three years. The detection rates of 6 viral pathogens were 35.6% in 2005, 44.6% in 2006 and 24.4% in 2007 and the peak rate was 55.4% at adult size group (above 41cm). Viral nervous necrosis virus (24.7%) has been the most predominant virus in this investigation, while much lower rates were noted in viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (10.6%) and red sea bream iridovirus (0.9%).

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2012

This study surveyed for the prevalence of parasites, bacteria and viruses in four fish species, olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus), red sea bream (Pagrus major), black sea bream (Acathopagrus schlegeli) and black rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli) in 2010. The survey was aimed to compare the pathogens detected from wild and cultured fish for an epidemiological study. Anisakis sp. was predominantly detected from wild olive flounder and red sea bream (58.6% and 41.7% respectively), but not from the cultured fishes, suggesting anisakid infection is rare in cultured fish. The wild fish get in contact with the anisakids through their prey such as small fishes or crustaceans which carry the anisakids; whereas the cultured fish are fed with formulated feed, free of anisakids. Bacterial detection rates from the wild fishes examined in the study were lower than those of cultured fishes. Vibrio sp. dominated among detected bacterial population in cultured olive flounder (18%). Since vibriosis is known as a secondary infection caused by other stressful factors such as parasitic infections, handling and chemical treatment, it seems that cultured olive flounder are exposed to stressful environment. Viruses diagnosed in the study showed difference in distribution between wild and cultured fishes; hirame rhabdovirus (HRV) (0.1%) and lymphocystis disease virus (LCDV) (3.9%) were detected in the cultured olive flounder, but not in the wild fish, and marine birnavirus (MBV) (1.7%) and red sea bream iridovirus (RSIV) (3.2%) were detected from the wild and cultured red sea bream, respectively. From the survey conducted, it can be concluded that even though some pathogens (Trichodina sp., Microcotyle sp., etc.) are detected from both the wild and cultured fish, pathogens such as Anisakis sp., Vibrio sp. and LCDV showed difference in distribution in the wild and cultured host of same fish species and this can be attributed to their environmental condition and feeding.