Outbreak of Parasitic Dinoflagellate Piscinoodinium sp. Infection in an Endangered Fish from India: Arulius Barb (Dawkinsia arulius)

Freshwater velvet disease is caused by the dinoflagellate parasite, Piscinoodinium sp. This parasite has been reported in tropical and subtropical fishes, and it can cause devastating losses. Moreover, Piscinoodinium sp. is identified as one of the least studied finfish parasites, and the available molecular information about this parasite is meager. Recently, Piscinoodinium sp. was responsible for the 100% cumulative mortality of the captive-bred F1 generation of Arulius barb (Dawkinsia arulius), an endangered freshwater fish native to India. The trophont stages of the parasite were observed in the skin and gills of the affected fish. The total DNA was extracted from the trophonts collected from the affected Arulius barb and the partial nucleotide sequence of the rDNA complex region (2334 bp) was amplified using PCR. The amplified PCR product exhibited a high sequence identity (97.61%) with Piscinoodinium sp. In the phylogenetic analysis of the SSU rDNA, Piscinoodinium sp. emerged as a separate clade from other dinoflagellate species. This is the first report of the infection of Piscinoodinium sp. in Arulius barb and the molecular information generated from this study can serve as a baseline to study the diversity of the parasite in India. Furthermore, the impact of this parasite among wild fish stock is not known, and this parasite needs further research focus to generate more molecular information and to understand the host-pathogen interaction.

Automated summary

Freshwater velvet disease, caused by the dinoflagellate parasite Piscinoodinium sp., has been reported in tropical and subtropical fishes and can cause devastating losses. However, there is limited molecular information about this parasite. In this study, Piscinoodinium sp. was found to be responsible for 100% mortality in captive-bred Arulius barb. The molecular information generated from this study could serve as a baseline for further research on the diversity of this parasite in India.