Blood from eight fish was withdrawn from caudal vein into plastic Eppendorf tubes using 1-ml syringe and no. 7 needle containing anticoagulant solution. For serum samples preparation, blood was collected into Eppendorf tubes without anticoagulant in syringe and mixed and kept at 4C for 12 h and
then centrifuged (4C, 3,000g for 15 min). The supernatants were collected as the serum samples
and stored immediately at -70C until use.