The susceptibility of snakehead rhabdovirus to treatment at 20°C with 5 commercially available disinfectants was examined. No reduction in virus infectivity occurred following exposure to 5 ppm malachite green for 6 hours. Treatment of infective cell culture fluids with 2% formalin resulted in > 99.9% reduction in virus titre within 5 minutes and complete inactivation within 30 minutes, but a negligible loss in infectivity after exposure to 0.025% formalin for 1 hour. Suspensions of the virus in distilled water were completely inactivated within 5 minutes by 12.5 ppm chlorine, 50 ppm iodine, or a 1:2000 dilution of a peroxygen disinfectant. In the presence of serum in infective cell culture fluids, however, > 50 ppm chlorine was required to inactivate the agent and no measurable reduction in infectivity was observed following treatment with 500 ppm iodine for 30 minutes.