Ex vivo transfection of trout pronephros leukocytes, a model for cell culture screening of fish DNA vaccine candidates

► Ex vivo transfection of pronephros cells for DNA vaccines screening. ► Successful expression of GFP and GVHSV in transfected pronephros cells. ► GVHSV up-regulated migm, tcr and tnfα 24 h post-transfection. ► GVHSV up-regulated mx and tnfα, and induced an anti-VHSV state, 72 h post-transfection.