Development of an aquatic pathogen database (AquaPathogen X) and its utilization in tracking emerging fish virus pathogens in North America

• Published in: Journal of fish diseases 2011-08, Vol.34 (8), p.579-587
• Main Authors: Emmenegger, E.J, Kentop, E, Thompson, T.M, Pittam, S, Ryan, A, Keon, D, Carlino, J.A, Ranson, J, Life, R.B, Troyer, R.M, Garver, K.A, Kurath, G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: animal diseases; Animals; bacteria; Databases, Nucleic Acid; emerging diseases; epidemiological studies; fish; Fish Diseases - virology; Fisheries - instrumentation; Fisheries - methods; Fishes; hosts; Infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus; Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus - genetics; Information Dissemination; Internet; molecular epidemiology; monitoring; necrosis; North America; Novirhabdovirus - genetics; nucleotide sequences; parasites; pathogen; Rhabdoviridae - genetics; Rhabdoviridae Infections - veterinary; Rhabdoviridae Infections - virology; Rhabdovirus; risk factors; shellfish; shrimp; spring viraemia of carp virus; vertebrate viruses; viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus; Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus; water
• ISSN: 0140-7775; 1365-2761
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2761.2011.01270.x

The AquaPathogen X database is a template for recording information on individual isolates of aquatic pathogens and is freely available for download (http://wfrc.usgs.gov). This database can accommodate the nucleotide sequence data generated in molecular epidemiological studies along with the myriad of abiotic and biotic traits associated with isolates of various pathogens (e.g. viruses, parasites and bacteria) from multiple aquatic animal host species (e.g. fish, shellfish and shrimp). The cataloguing of isolates from different aquatic pathogens simultaneously is a unique feature to the AquaPathogen X database, which can be used in surveillance of emerging aquatic animal diseases and elucidation of key risk factors associated with pathogen incursions into new water systems. An application of the template database that stores the epidemiological profiles of fish virus isolates, called Fish ViroTrak, was also developed. Exported records for two aquatic rhabdovirus species emerging in North America were used in the implementation of two separate web-accessible databases: the Molecular Epidemiology of Aquatic Pathogens infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (MEAP-IHNV) database (http://gis.nacse.org/ihnv/) released in 2006 and the MEAP- viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (http://gis.nacse.org/vhsv/) database released in 2010.