Ezzat Amira, Abd El Wahed Ahmed, Ceruti Arianna, El Asely Amel M, Khalifa Mohamed Shawky, Winters Andrew D, Truyen Uwe, Shaheen Adel A, Faisal Mohamed
Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Benha University, Toukh 13736, Egypt.
Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 43, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Pathogens. 2025 Sep 16;14(9):935. doi: 10.3390/pathogens14090935.
Nile tilapia () is an indispensable source of high-quality protein worldwide. Along with the exponential expansion of tilapia aquaculture, several novel pathogenic viruses have emerged, and some cause significant economic losses. Unfortunately, there is scarce information on the biology and epidemiology of these viruses. This exploratory metagenomic study used Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing to profile the virome compositions of both wild and farmed Nile tilapia across five regions in Egypt. The Nile tilapia virome was dominated by two double-stranded DNA bacteriophages, and , which constituted 79.8% of the detected sequences. Eukaryotic viruses, including members of the families , , and , were also identified. Two giant DNA viruses known to infect spp., sp., and sp. were identified in the spleen virome of tilapia from a single sampling site. The diversity analysis showed no significant differences among tissue types or sampling sites. Phylogenetic analyses were performed on a single virus detected of potential pathogenicity, an amnoonvirus. The analyses demonstrated that the detected virus is a member of the family and placed it alongside members of the genus. The virus, however, was distinct from the other two members in the genus: and . This study underscores the usefulness of ONT in providing a foundational understanding of the Nile tilapia virome.
尼罗罗非鱼（）是全球不可或缺的优质蛋白质来源。随着罗非鱼养殖业的指数级扩张，出现了几种新型致病病毒，其中一些造成了重大经济损失。不幸的是，关于这些病毒的生物学和流行病学信息稀缺。这项探索性宏基因组研究使用牛津纳米孔技术（ONT）测序来描绘埃及五个地区野生和养殖尼罗罗非鱼的病毒组组成。尼罗罗非鱼病毒组以两种双链DNA噬菌体和为主，它们占检测序列的79.8%。还鉴定出了真核病毒，包括、和科的成员。在来自单个采样点的罗非鱼脾脏病毒组中鉴定出两种已知感染、和物种的巨型DNA病毒。多样性分析表明，组织类型或采样点之间没有显著差异。对检测到的一种具有潜在致病性的病毒——氨病毒进行了系统发育分析。分析表明，检测到的病毒是科的成员，并将其与属的成员归为一类。然而，该病毒与属中的其他两个成员和不同。这项研究强调了ONT在提供对尼罗罗非鱼病毒组基本理解方面的有用性。
