Division I.1 Preparation of samples from fish

For diagnostic purposes the fish (sent alive or killed and packed separately in sealed aseptic containers) or alternatively frozen organs or organ pieces preserved in 80 % to absolute ethanol or viral transport medium (to be processed within 48 hours after collection) may be used for testing with conventional PCR or qPCR based methods.

For the detection of KHV, gill and kidney shall be collected; in addition spleen, encephalon and intestine may be included in an additional separated sample. In acute cases, tissue material of up to five fish may be pooled.

Furthermore, non-lethal samples such as blood, gill swabs, gill biopsy, mucus scrape may be used in certain cases (namely very valuable fish may be used in the case of the suspicion of the presence of KHV).